


The Union of Family

by OakEcho



Series: The Love of Family [3]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode Fix-It: s07e25 Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager), F/M, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Home, Humor, Post-Endgame, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:13:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 46,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25506505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OakEcho/pseuds/OakEcho
Summary: Takes place immediately post endgame. The homecoming they all deserve.J/C romance.C/7 mentions just to fix it.Final part of my The Love of Family series. Probably don't need to read the others first, but this follows on from them.
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway, Tom Paris/B'Elanna Torres
Series: The Love of Family [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842133
Comments: 51
Kudos: 107





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy my thoughts on what happened as soon as the credits rolled on Endgame.   
> Sorry for my over use of short jokes. I've also made Naomi act a bit younger than she was (sorry).

“Mr Chakotay, take the helm.”

Janeway settled herself back into her Captains chair, lovingly running her hands up and down the arms. It had been her companion for the last seven years and now they were less than a light year from home. Janeway looked to her right and made eye contact with Tuvok. Nodding imperceptibly to one another, the captain tapped her comm badge.

“Janeway to all hands.” She paused, swallowing the lump which had formed in her throat. 

“Welcome back to the alpha quadrant.”

The stunned silence that had been present all over the ship suddenly broke. The whole crew had been on duty for the mission, so they would all have known the success of the plan. The confirmation from the Captain changed the atmosphere from one of utter shock and quiet emotion, to raucous celebrations which could be heard from the bridge. 

Janeway herself broke into a smile and looked around at the senior staff on the bridge, sharing a smile with each one in turn. Even Tuvok’s raised eyebrow seemed to indicate he was pleased. Seven smiled tentatively back and Janeway made a mental note to make sure she spoke to the former borg later. This would be a strange time for all of them, Seven more than most and Janeway wanted to make sure Seven knew she had her full support whatever was thrown at them now.

Janeway stood up from her chair again and wandered over to Harry who could barely keep himself from jumping up and down. She rested her hand upon his shoulder and smiled. Harry tried to maintain some sort of restraint, but he couldn’t help grinning back like a fool. Harrys Ops stations started beeping violently. He looked down at the console in shock.

“We have a large amount of communications coming through Captain. Most seem to be welcome home messages from vessels surrounding us.”

“Re-route them all to my ready room please Harry. I think I might need to go and speak to Admiral Paris again don’t you? He might need a tad more explanation. I’ll be in my ready room. I think we should have a senior staff meeting in half an hour. Tom and B’Elanna are excused though, but I can’t wait to meet baby Paris.” 

Harry nodded, furiously typing at his controls to keep on top of the copious messages which were being received. 

Captain Janeway flopped into her chair in her ready room and leaned her head against the back rest. She was completely exhausted. Physically and emotionally. In the last few days she had gone from being lost in the delta quadrant with 50 or more years travel ahead of her, to meeting herself from the future. A future which would now never happen. She had also been told of the illness of one of her closest friends, the death of others, learning of the relationship between Seven and Chakotay, and now the prospect of being home so many years earlier, seeing her family and having to deal with Starfleet again. Not to mention that she had given her future self the injection and sending her on a suicide mission. It was rather a lot to take in for any one person. Still, Captain Janeway only rested for a matter of moments before she straightened herself up, put her captains mask back in place, and started to work on the communications with Starfleet. 

She smiled when she first opened them as she realised that Harry was not just rerouting them to her console, but had filed them under “Urgent Starfleet”, “Welcome Home”, and “Not obvious without reading”. 

“I must make that list of people who need promotions” Janeway muttered to herself as she thought of how far the young ensign had come since they started their journey. She had a lot of lists to make, she had already started on a few.

The top of the urgent from Starfleet list was orders for the helm. She transferred them quickly.

“Janeway to the helm”

“Ayala here Captain”

Janeway was expecting Chakotay to still be at the helm, she had only left moments ago. Chakotay was quick to transfer that duty so he could move around the ship.

“I assume you already have the new heading and holding orders for just outside Earth’s orbit?”

“Yes Captain. On route now.”

“Very good. Janeway out.”

“Sitting just out of Earth’s orbit, not sure what that means they are going to do with us, they probably don’t know where we should dock” Janeway speculated, muttering slightly to herself.

Next order of business was hailing Admiral Paris. She had received a message that she was to comm him again as soon as she could. The Starfleet logo appeared on her screen. It had been a long time since she’d used the computer in her ready room to comm anyone and she vaguely wondered if it was still capable or if that function had been stripped for parts at some point along the way. It seemed her computer had been spared for Admiral Paris answered quickly. Sat now in his office, he looked less stunned than when he had appeared on the viewscreen but more dishevelled. 

“Captain Janeway. Thank you for calling me back, I just had to hang up a call from the Fleet Admiral to answer your call. As you might have guessed, you’ve got HQ in a bit of a tizzy Katie.”

“Good to see you Admiral. I’m sorry about being so short earlier. We were all a bit in shock, I think. We all hoped it would work, but I think we were not prepared for it to do so. I also was waiting for another comm call and didn’t want to miss it.” Janeway paused, she had discussed with Tom that she could tell Owen Paris that he was a Grandfather, but she still felt like she should not be the one who should have the privilege. 

“Owen, congratulations, your granddaughter was born just before we spoke to you. I haven’t been to see them yet, but Tom is down there now, and the doctor assures us that both mother and baby are doing well.” 

Owens face softened at the words and a small smile was visible at the corner of his mouth. 

“I’m so glad you got here so that I can meet her. Thank you, Katie. I have to admit, with all that has gone on in the last hour, that is not something I’d even considered yet.”

They paused for a moment allowing the personal moment to sink in before returning to the pressing Starfleet matters which needed to be attended too. 

Half an hour later Janeway finished her conversation with the Admiral and rushed to the senior staff meeting she was hoping Harry had informed everyone about. She looked at the chromometer and realised that she was herself 5 minutes late, she paused just outside the automatic door sensors and took a deep breath before going in to give the orders that she had received from the Admiral to her senior staff. 

As she stepped through the door, she saw that everyone was there already, with two exceptions. B’Elanna, who she hadn’t expected, and the doctor who she assumed was looking after the youngest crew member and new mother. 

Janeway took her place at the head of the table as everyone ceased talking. 

“Well Tom, how is the youngest crewmember? I wasn’t expecting you to be here, I didn’t think you would want either of them out of your sight right now?” She directed at her helmsman. 

“She’s perfect Captain” Tom beamed “But I wouldn’t want to miss all the good bits of this now we are so nearly home. Besides, B’Elanna was threatening to come to this meeting herself so I placated her by coming so I can fill her in later.”

Tom barely finished when the doors swished open once more to reveal B’Elanna with a tiny baby sleeping in her arms followed by a flailing doctor.

“Like hell is this going to be the one senior staff meeting I miss. I’m fine doctor, stop fussing.”

Tom was on his feet and gently guided B’Elanna down into his previously occupied seat and shifted Chakotay out of the seat the first officer had been occupying between Tom and Seven. Chakotay moved around the table coming to rest beside the Captain.

“She’s so lovely B’Elanna!”

“Have she got a name yet?”

A chorus of questions emanated from the room, with the exception of Tuvok and Seven, all leaning forward clearly wanting to get closer to the little bundle in her mother’s arms but trying to restrain themselves so as to not overcrowd the new mother.

“Everyone, meet Miral Paris.” Tom and B’Elanna announced together. Coos of appreciation followed from everyone, including the Captain. Janeway allowed herself and her senior staff this moment of happiness and serenity before they embarked on the orders which were now being issued by Starfleet. 

“I’m sorry to change the tone of the moment, but I need to divulge the orders given to me by this little cutie-pie’s grandfather. He sends his best wishes and can’t wait to meet her.” Janeway started, looking around the room at the people she had relied on for seven years, lastly turning to her first officer for the first time in this meeting.

“I specifically asked about the status of the Marquis” She intoned, with a small half smile out of the corner of her mouth using the words Starfleet had formally used to ask her the same thing previously.

“I was a bit late to the meeting because I insisted on getting written confirmation that everyone on this ship has had their warrants for arrest rescinded and no action will be taken. They have also promised backpay and the option for people to retain their ranks and continue in Starfleet if they so choose.” 

Chakotay’s cheeks dimpled as he smiled his thanks to his Captain for thinking of them and reassuring her crew of their futures. Chakotay knew that many of the former Marquis had been very anxious that their return home would not be the happy times they had hoped for. He smiled knowing how much this would mean to all of them, and how great it was to know of their fate now, rather than being worried about it throughout their homecoming. Now they could all enjoy it without fear.

“They could not promise me the same for the Equinox crew, but I was assured they will not be arrested as they step onto the soil. They may face court martial, but they shouldn’t end up in jail for it at least. Tom your sentence is long up as I’m sure you know so you are safe too, I’m sure you guessed your father sorted that long ago.”

Captain Janeway moved over to the viewport and gestured at the view of Earth.

“We are on an approach to Earth where we will be held just above orbit. From there we will have a team of doctors and councillors beamed aboard to assess each of us. This is standard deep space procedure Doctor, please don’t be alarmed. Chakotay, could you liaise with the Medical Officer from HQ and come up with a schedule please.” Chakotay nodded and made a note of it on his PADD. 

“That should commence within a few hours and take most of the day. During this, I would like everyone to make sure their logs are up to date and start packing up their belongings. At 1800 hours a relief crew will be beamed aboard to take over the bridge for the night so that the whole crew can get some sleep.” 

Janeway turned to Tom Paris then to Harry Kim. 

“Lieutenant, Ensign. Can you make sure the holodecks are up and running please? I feel we might have quite a few causes for celebration, don’t you?” Tom beamed wildly at Harry who returned it with equal if not more enthusiasm, communicating and planning something without words.

“We will have to make sure people do get sleep though because we have a busy day ahead of us. The following morning at 0900 hours we will start an approach pattern to Earth. Tom, how do you feel about doing a flypast of San Francisco and landing Voyager on the lawns in front of the Presidio? That doesn’t leave these four walls yet though please as it had not been officially given the green light. From what I gather Starfleet are going to make a big show of us being home, I fully expect there will be press present. Personally, I think I would rather slip back into Earth quietly, but I don’t think Starfleet would let this good a PR opportunity go do you?”

Murmurs of shock that they would be given this privilege echoed through the room. 

“There will be a formal ceremony of us disembarking. Tuvok, when was the last time we ran marching drills? We are to be in formation when we leave the ship.” 

“I do believe when I suggested that we run those drills in the first few months after we encountered the Caretakers Array that you suggested we would not need to practice marching while in the delta quadrant as you rather hated the practice yourself and did not wish to subject your crew to it while they were already stuck so far from home in this ‘bloody hell-hole’. I did not bring it up again as I believed you had made your thoughts on the matter quite clear Captain.” Tuvok answered, Tom, Harry and Chakotay supressed a snigger and Janeway thought she could sense the mocking tone underneath Tuvoks otherwise emotionless exterior. 

“Hmm, well yes, I do recall that conversation. Perhaps we could revive it for a crash course during the time we are being assessed by the doctors and councillors, Chakotay and Tuvok, please liaise to arrange this. We can’t go out there looking like an unprofessional mess now can we?”

“As I understand it there is to be some sort of short ceremony for the return of our ship and a welcome home. Starfleet currently has all staff it can spare contacting our families and arranging transport for them to HQ. I know many of our crew have families which will not make it to Earth in a day to greet us” Janeway turned to Chakotay and Tuvok, the people around the table to who she thought that would apply.

“They will do everything they can to get them here quickly. We are all to be housed by Starfleet for the first two weeks for initial debriefings. We will be allowed to leave to see our families, but we are requested to be available to them for debriefings and anything else they want to ask us about our experiences. Families are welcome to stay with crew in their quarters. After that, we will be given leave before more debriefings and then the rest of our lives lay before us.” Janeway paused contemplating what was going to happen in the next few weeks and months, it all seemed so far away, so unreal. She moved back from her position at her view port to sit at her customary chair at the head of the table.

“On a personal note I want to say thank you to each and every one of you. I can’t quite believe we have gotten to this point, and we couldn’t have done it without you. I could not have asked for a better crew, or for better friends to have gone though this with. My door is always going to be open for all of you, wherever the next adventure takes us. Now let’s get through all this Starfleet administration before that party on the holodeck this evening. I have quite a difficult report to write about the temporal prime directive and a certain Admiral and it is giving me a headache already.”

The senior staff hung around for a while digesting the meeting and the events of the day and gushing over little Miral. Seven, the Doctor, Tuvok and Harry filed themselves out to disseminate the information to the rest of the crew and begin the tasks assigned to them. B’Elanna and Tom approached Chakotay and Janeway who were still sat in their places next to each other, chatting gently about Starfleet’s orders. 

“Sorry to interrupt Captain, Chakotay, but we have something very important to ask you.” Tom began. 

“Kathryn, Chakotay, would you please be Mirals Godparents?” B’Elanna finished. 

Janeway’s mouth gaped open. She was shocked that they would ask her. She was not surprised they had asked Chakotay, being B’Elannas closest friend, but she was genuinely shocked they had given her that honour too. 

“I.. I.. don’t know what to say! I’m honoured! Of course I will!” Janeway stammered. Chakotay beamed at B’Elanna and Tom. 

“I would be honoured to, too.”

“Excellent, now that’s out of the way, as the father of your Goddaughter, neither of you are allowed to through me out of an airlock anymore if I annoy you” Tom quipped. B’Elanna gave her husband a playful smack on the arm.

“Tom, that didn’t work when your siblings married, it isn’t going to work now.” Chakotay quipped at Tom.

“Miral, this is your Aunty Kathryn and Uncle Chakotay, they are your Godparents.” B’Elanna spoke softly to a bright-eyed Miral who seemed to be listening quietly to all that was going on. B’Elanna moved to put Miral into the seated arms of Captain Janeway.

“Oh B’Elanna, she is so perfect, isn’t she?” Janeway addressed to the baby held awkwardly in her arms. She smiled with tears glistening in her eyes up at Chakotay who smiled back with similarly teary eyes and handed the precious cargo over to her first officer. 

Chakotay spoke some words in a language Janeway didn’t understand. She took a moment to look at her first officer lovingly holding the tiny baby in his arms like he’d done it a thousand times before. She on the other hand, though honoured that she had been chosen to be Godmother, never failed to find herself apprehensive when holding a baby. She had never been herself particularly comfortable around children in general, much less babies. She had to admit though, seeing Chakotay lovingly holding Miral stirred up feelings deep within her that she had long supressed and refused to acknowledge. 

Chakotay bent down and gently kissed the top of Miral’s soft fluffy head and handed her back to her mother and father. B’Elanna and Tom left the room with their precious daughter, leaving the command team to compose themselves after an emotional day, with much more hard work promised ahead of them before they could relax. 

Just as the doors closed behind them, they heard Chakotay asking Janeway to have dinner with him one last time on the ship before the holodeck party. The doors closed before they heard her response. Tom beamed at his wife.

“I really hope you didn’t just suggest the Captain as Godmother as a way of matchmaking with Chakotay? I really thought your days of doing that were over.”

“I didn’t, I swear! But if that happens to be the unintended outcome, then I am certainly not going to complain!”

“Honestly Tom” B’Elanna sighed. 

“Besides, they haven’t seemed as close recently, and I know Chakotay has been spending time with Seven, I’ve even heard a rumour they were dating.” She frowned at the thought. 

“Well, let’s just see how this pans out shall we? We at least know they are going to have a romantic dinner before the party tonight.”

B’Elanna laughed at her husband, not bothering to correct his assumptions about the command team, and they walked arm in arm with their perfect daughter towards their quarters as a family for the first time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathryn and Chakotay share their last dinner aboard Voyager.

Janeway looked at the chromometer on her console on the bridge. 1759. She was anxious for the relief crew to get here. She had wanted to be on the bridge to be present herself when they arrived to relieve them of duty for the night. In fact, the entire bridge staff had turned up for the honour. Tom had got bored quickly, they were stationary in space after all, and Janeway had insisted that he and Harry head off to sort themselves out and spend time with the little one or sort out the holodeck. 

Janeway thought back to the brief medical and psychological evaluations they had all endured during the day. She herself had been the last and it was clear the doctors were stunned with the lists of injuries and traumas that the crew, not least herself, had endured. But they seemed even more stunned by the good medical health of the crew at present. By the time the doctors had gotten to Janeway’s evaluation they were praising the capabilities of the Doctor who was present and grinning wildly with pride. She had a feeling that he would be boasting about his achievements for the foreseeable future. The thought made her smile. 

The psychological assessments had been brief. Janeway knew that there was no way that this was the end of their counselling sessions and nor should they be. As much as she had always hated counselling, she had resolved to herself that she would accept the help and be as honest as she could be. Even Captain Janeway could not deny that the last seven years had been more than enough mental strain for any person’s lifetime. But the psychological assessments of the day seemed quick, and more focused on assessing whether any of them were mentally ill or a threat to anyone. She suspected that the woman who conducted these assessments was a betazoid. Either way, they had seemed satisfied with her, she hoped everyone else had convinced them of their sanity too. 

1800 arrived and Bertrand who had taken over from Harry at Ops indicated that five Starfleet personnel were requesting permission to beam directly to the bridge. Janeway nodded at Bertrand and made eye contact with Chakotay. They were to have dinner together immediately after this, they had a mere 1.5 hrs before the party on the holodeck, and this was one crew party Janeway did not want to miss. She had been surprised when Chakotay suggested they have one final evening meal together in his quarters. It had become a weekly tradition after they returned from their stay on New Earth. A way to continue their newfound friendship when they returned to the ship. Over the years the tradition had waned slightly, and they found they had not had a meal together in private in a few months. Janeway assumed, in retrospect, this was because Chakotay had been spending increasing amounts of time with Seven. She had not known of the growing relationship between them until the Admiral Janeway had told her of their marriage. From that, she had gone back through the duty rosters and holodeck bookings and found that they had been spending time together. Janeway had felt physically sick. She tried to tell herself that she was happy for them, happy that two people she cared very deeply for had found each other, but she just could not shake the feeling of repulsion. Still, she had buried her emotions deep within herself and carried on, there were much more pressing matters to deal with than assessing her own emotions as was always the case for a Starfleet Captain. 

A tall lanky fellow, considerably older than Janeway herself, introduced himself as Captain Merchant. He shook hands with Janeway then Chakotay. 

“I do not believe we met before Captain, but I worked with your father on a few occasions. Welcome home and well done for making it here in one piece. Rumour has it that you came through inside a Borg Sphere? Well I can’t wait to hear about it later. I think you should all get off now. I do believe I am here to relieve you for ‘the crew to rest and recuperate after a stressful few days without sleep and an important day tomorrow’. But my guess is that there is going to be a party starting in a few hours. Don’t worry, we won’t monitor the ship too closely.” Captain Merchant winked at Janeway and Chakotay. The older gentleman was rather verbose from what she had heard of him and she was grateful this spiel was as short as it was. It would only be later that she would learn that it was meant to be his retirement party that evening which had been rudely interrupted by the arrival of Voyager. He had asked to be able to take this shift with his bridge crew from his old ship as recompense so that he could get the opportunity to have a nice night with some friends one last time and get to go aboard the famed Voyager. 

The Voyager bridge crew relieved, they piled into the turbolift together. Janeway and Chakotay alighted first on deck 3 where their quarters were located. They reached the Captains quarters first.

“I will just be a minute Chakotay, I just want to freshen up a bit before dinner and then we can go straight from yours to the holodeck”

Not even 5 minutes later, Chakotay let Captain Janeway into his quarters for their last dinner together aboard Voyager. Janeway was feeling rather more shy and awkward than she had ever felt before one of these dinners together. Sure, they often in the past had had romantic candle-lit dinners and trips on the holodeck, but they had always been in the Delta Quadrant, where protocol and the ever-present fear of death and destruction loomed over every minute. But here, now, in the alpha quadrant, when they had not had dinner together in months, when Janeway was aware that Chakotay had been dating Seven and would marry her in the future the Admiral saw, it all felt very different than before. 

Janeway had even gone through a moment of wondering what she should wear. In the end, she had not over thought it and gone for one of her favourite casual dresses which would suit whatever holodeck programme her resident mischief makers had cooked up. She let her hair fall down around her shoulders and touched up her light make-up and hurried next door to her first officers’ quarters before she could over think it anymore. 

“You look lovely as ever Kathryn, and very on time too. I’ve only just had time to change myself. Good thing I cooked the food earlier today and put it in stasis in the replicator.” Chakotay greeted.

“Where did you find time for that? I’ve been rushed off my feet all day and you have had time to cook a meal!?” Janeway replied in mock outrage. 

“Well, it wasn’t just you I conveniently forgot to sign up for a time of the marching practice.” Chakotay replied sheepishly with a half-smile which showed off one of his dimples. 

Kathryn laughed. She wondered why she had been nervous before this, Chakotay always knew how to make her laugh when they were off duty and she relaxed, sinking into the dining chair and putting her feet up on the other. 

“I do worry what Starfleet are going to think of us when the senior staff are the ones that look a mess and the crew look impeccable though!” Janeway and Chakotay laughed at the thought. 

“Naomi and Icheb insisted they be included in the marching practice by the way, so I let them. Icheb insisted that he wanted to learn now so he can impress when he joins the Academy and Naomi said it would be embarrassing if the Captain’s Assistant made a fool out of herself. I had no way to back out when they both ganged up on me. Tuvok agreed, you know how Naomi has him wrapped round her little finger, so I didn’t see any harm in it did you?”

Kathryn nodded in consent, sniggering at the way Naomi had always had Chakotay wrapped around his little finger as well as Tuvok and most of the Voyager crew. 

“And Seven?” Janeway inquired. Seven was the only one of whole crew apart from them who had not been given the crash course. She did not really want to bring this subject up when they were having such a pleasant conversation, but this was the natural thing to bring up next. 

“What about Seven.” Chakotay asked slightly too innocently for her liking.

“Did she learn too? She is the only one who hasn’t if not.”

“I believe she observed for a few minutes before insisting that she had mastered the basics and left to do something else.” Chakotay answered, no emotion showing in his voice.

“Well, that’s ok then. We don’t want her feeling left out now do we?” Janeway answered. She wanted to drop the topic but could not help but press further.

“I spoke to Seven today about the prospect of leaving Voyager. She admits that she is apprehensive, particularly about how she will be received on Earth, but I reassured her that we would not abandon her. She seemed reassured by that, and by us being housed together for a while when we arrive. I think she will be alright after a while. She will adapt.” Janeway was aware she was rambling slightly now. She wanted him to tell her he was dating Seven, she was quite offended that he had not told her himself and she had had to learn it from Admiral Janeway. Chakotay remained silent.

“You’ve been close to her recently haven’t you? How do you think she will do?” Janeway probed.

“I..err.” Chakotay started. “I think we should make sure the doctor and Seven remain together as much as possible. They are closest to each other and they reassure one another. They are both going to be oddities on Earth and I think they will support each other in that don’t you? We will all keep in contact and stay as one big family.” Chakotay paused and sighed rather loudly. “Kathryn, I know what the Admiral told you about me and Seven getting married. She told me too. I have been on a couple of dates with Seven, but I have no interest in her more than a friend. At first I was flattered she had a crush on me and reasoned with myself that I would be helping her learn her humanity if I went on a few dates with her. But it felt wrong. I don’t know what happened in the Admirals timeline to make us get married, but I really can’t see it happening in this timeline. We are far too different. We have agreed that we will not go on anymore dates but we will continue to be friends and help each other through this time of transition. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the dates at the time, I guess I was ashamed for using Seven for the ego boost thinking that the beautiful young blonde wanted me, and I was ashamed to tell you, even if I hadn’t admitted that to myself at the time.”

“Chakotay, what you and Seven get up to in your off-duty time is your own business. I was a bit miffed that neither you nor Seven mentioned it to me, but its ok. I just want both of you to be happy, with whoever you want to be with.” Janeway smiled slightly at Chakotay, relieved that he was no longer dating Seven. She could analyse why she felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest later. She changed the topic. 

“So. How about us being little Mirals Godparents then? I have to say I was more than shocked they chose me. I know I have always thought of Tom as a younger brother type figure, but to be a Godmother was not something I was expecting out of today.”

“I’m not surprised. B’Elanna had implied to me before that I would be Godfather, so that wasn’t a shock to me. I’m still honoured beyond belief though. I don’t think you have really realised what you mean to them. Truly. You gave them both the chance and the responsibility to prove themselves at points in their lives where they were lost and needed your direction. And when they failed, you treated them like adults. You punished them but allowed them to grow from their mistakes. You have nourished them, and they look up to you. I don’t know if you heard, but the crew often call you Mother Janeway when you aren’t around rather than Captain. That is how much they look up to you, and what you have done for them. So no, I’m not surprised in the least that they made you Godmother. They have seen how much you fiercely loved and looked after them and this crew, and know that you will do the same for Miral.” Chakotay ended his impassioned speech as he poured them a second glass of wine and resumed eating his dinner. 

Janeway sat still with a small smile playing on her lips, looking intently at her food for a few moments. 

“Chakotay? You know they call you Daddy Chakotay right? First I heard it was the Delaney sisters talking from a Jeffreys tube they didn’t realise I was in. I rather assumed a different meaning I must confess.” Chakotay almost choked on the mouthful of wine he had just sipped. 

“Don’t worry, I heard others say it too in context and it was defiantly as a father figure not, you know…” Janeway teased her first officer. 

“Hmm.. well. At least this guarantees we get to be part of Mirals life. I’m rather apprehensive about Earth to be honest. I didn’t exactly leave it on the best of terms last time, and I don’t want this sense of peace I have gotten here from the Voyager family to be ruined. I’m glad we will at least have to keep in contact with each other and their family.” Chakotay confessed. 

“Chakotay. Honestly, that scares me too. And if that scares us, it is probably a fear for most of the crew. We will need to reassure them that we are all a family even when we leave the ship. I have no idea what I am going to do next, but I plan on staying put on Earth with my family for a while anyway. Do you have any plans for your next steps after this? I haven’t had a chance to think and I can’t think much past seeing my mom and sister now they are so close to be honest.” She glanced longingly out of the view port to see Earth. 

“I really don’t know. And I’m not sure I want to think about it right now. I want to see my sister whenever she makes it to Earth, and I want to sleep in without an alarm waking me up. That is about as ambitious as I am right now. Oh and spoil Miral rotten, teach her some naughty words which will get Tom in trouble, you know, that sort of thing.”

Janeway laughed wholeheartedly.

“Well at least I can see who is going to be the responsible Godparent. Although, I will probably spoil her rotten too when I get a moment to think about it properly.” Janeway responded through her laughter.

“I know exactly what her first present should be from us! A Starfleet babygrow! So she matches us when we leave tomorrow. We can present it tonight!”

“That is a brilliant idea. Only one thing. In what colour? Can’t have Tom and B’Elanna fighting about whether she is going to be a pilot or an engineer already, can we?!” Chakotay and Janeway were almost in fits of giggles by now, the second glass of real alcohol already having an effect. 

“Hmmm… I vote yellow. I can deal with a pissed off Tom but let’s not push B’Elanna today. What do you think?”

“That sort of diplomatic thinking is why you are the Captain, Captain.”

Janeway moved to the replicator to quickly programme the garment, pooling the remaining replicator rations from herself and Chakotay, using his code with ease as she had done many times before when she was in dire need of a coffee at the end of the month. She paused, looking at the display screen on the replicator. 

“Chakotay. Look at these.”

Chakotay did just that and found Kathryn Janeway, Captain of Voyager cooing over tiny Starfleet uniforms.

“These socks are just so adorable. Look how little they are!” She exclaimed. “Oh, I wish I had known these were in here for when Naomi was little too, she would have loved these.”

A tiny, baby sized yellow Starfleet uniform materialised alongside some socks in command red with the Starfleet logo adorning them. Kathryn picked them up carefully and inspected them while Chakotay replaced her at the replicator monitor.

“They are even more adorable in real life!” 

“Kathryn, what about Naomi?” Kathryn looked at Chakotay with slight confusion for a second, then it dawned on her what he was implying. 

“Do they have her size too?” Chakotay nodded in response.

“One command uniform, size specifications current to Naomi Wildman.”

A Naomi sized uniform materialised in the replicator. 

“Oh, she is going to love this! This sort of thinking is why you are the first officer, Commander.” She winked at Chakotay before quickly wrapping their gifts for the two youngest crewmembers and headed toward to holodeck only a few minutes late to the party.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of Voyager let loose on a party on the holodeck.

Janeway and Chakotay entered the holodeck together, still laughing good naturedly with the effects of two glasses of real alcohol. They immediately recognised the location as one which was very familiar to them. It was Neelix’s beach resort where the crew had spent many an hour relaxing towards the start of the journey. The programme had become rather forgotten for other locations over the years, but they were glad for the familiarity and for the feeling of inclusion for Neelix and for Kes, both such important parts of their journey home. 

Harry bounded up to them, swiped two cocktails from a passing holographic waiter, and pressed them into the command duos hands as he whispered conspirationally.

“Admiral Paris beamed some real alcohol aboard. Shhhhhhhh!”

Janeway and Chakotay laughed together at Harry. They were not going to tell him that they had had a limited supply of real alcohol on board the whole time. And Harry clearly had had a few real alcohol cocktails already from the state of him. Harry spotted the Delany sisters entering behind them and waltzed off towards them instead. Chakotay turned to Janeway, laughter in his eyes.

“I do wish I had asked the doctor to prepare some detox hyposprays now. We do have to all be presentable tomorrow.”

Janeway coughed “I might have already had that taken care of. The Doctor was so full of himself after the glowing reports from the medical team that I used it to my advantage and challenged him to make enough to sober the whole crew up. He will be administering them to people as they leave for the evening.”

“And you found time to do this when? I thought you were busy all day?”

“I thought you were too, but you managed to cook food for us. It was really lovely by the way, I don’t think I got to thank you properly by the time we got distracted by the ickle baby clothes.” Kathryn rested one hand on his chest distractedly as she said it. 

Soon they had moved apart, chatting to the rest of the crew, having a good laugh for everyone was in a good mood. The crew were most relieved to see that the Captain had let her hair down, both physically and metaphorically, for the night. 

Kathryn found herself sat at the bar with Sam Wildman and Mike Ayala. She’d had another few drinks and was thoroughly enjoying herself when someone, probably Tom, Kathryn thought, called for her to give a speech. Soon the whole crew had crowded round her expectantly. Kathryn found Sam had pulled her to her feet, but that made her shorter than she was when she was perched on the bar stool. This elicited a good-natured smattering of laughter at the petite Captain. Kathryn made a show of looking disgruntled and with grace clambered onto the bar stools and stood on the bar, now much taller than anyone and able to see her whole crew. 

She saw the doctor with his holoimager off to one side, documenting almost every moment of the evening. Tuvok was close to her left, holding Miral in his arms. Tom and B’Elanna were close by, leaning into each other lovingly. Kathryn vaguely wondered how they were doing it, particularly B’Elanna. She had given birth during the previous night, and though Janeway knew she had gotten some sleep during the day, she had refused to be excused from almost anything. Harry and Seven were lingering near the back with Naomi between them. With that sight, her slightly fuzzy mind focussed on something she needed to do during this speech to her Voyager family. Her eyes found Chakotay’s and he nodded, understanding what she needed without question. 

“Alright, alright. Now you all know why I wear heels on the bridge.” Her audience laughed. 

“I’ve not going to say much as your Captain tonight. I have to give a speech to you all and everyone else tomorrow when we land. So tonight, I am going to say a few things as Kathryn Janeway. A slightly tipsy Kathryn Janeway, it does have to be said.” The crew softened perceptibly at their Captains let down of the walls which had guarded her from the crew for the last seven years and they laughed and cheered at her tipsy joke. 

“I would like to say that I love you all. And not in a drunk I love everyone kind of way. I love you all like my family. For that is what we have been for the last seven years. One big, odd and slightly dysfunctional family.” Another cheer from the crowd and a laugh. 

“Every single one of you should be proud of what you have achieved out here. Without all of you, we wouldn’t have gotten home in one piece. I will say this again tomorrow, but I really do think of you all as my family. I know I haven’t been able to be that close to many of you while we are out here, but I want you to know that my door is always open for all of you. This might be a joyous occasion for us, but it might be tough to readjust too. We still need to rely on each other and please feel free to come to me with anything, no matter how small or even if you just fancy a coffee.” The mention of Janeway’s famous coffee addiction elicited another hearty laugh from the crew. 

“Or a tea or hot chocolate if you are a caffeine lightweight.” Another round of laugher emanated from the crew.

“On a different note, myself and Chakotay have a few small things we need to do before we leave Voyager. Commander?” She motioned Chakotay to join her on the bar and he leapt on in one swift movement, making Kathryn jump in the process. 

“As I am sure you are all aware by now” Janeway continued when everyone had composed themselves “we had a new addition to our crew as of last night.” 

The crowd applauded for the baby Miral as B’Elanna took her back from Tuvok in case the noise bothered her, but she need not of worried. A baby born in a star ship inside a Borg transwarp conduit was unlikely to be phased by much. 

Chakotay continued for Janeway.   
“As God parents to the newest crew member, we thought it only fitting that we present her with her first Starfleet uniform.” He pulled the babygrow and socks from behind his back to the delight of the crowd and Mirals parents. 

“Love the colour! I won’t put them on her now in case she spits up on it before tomorrow” B’Elanna shouted her thanks from the crowd. 

Janeway could sense Sam near her feet craning her neck to try and find Naomi. Sam did not worry about Naomi much anymore, she was a smart, independent young girl who would come to her when she needed her mom. Janeway sensed Sam’s concern for her daughter who would now be the only one besides Seven who was not in uniform, even Icheb had taken to wearing the cadets uniform once he passed his entrance exams. 

Janeway placed her hand on Sam’s shoulder and smiled reassuringly. 

“I think we might be missing someone important for a uniform, don’t you Commander?” Janeway asked Chakotay in a mock tone.

“I think we might have, don’t you Captain?” was the reply. 

“Now this is not the sort of presentation I would normally conduct out of uniform, however this does seem like the most appropriate time. We wouldn’t want her to not have the uniform for tomorrows festivities!” 

Naomi’s face had frozen in a smile when they had presented Miral with a uniform. She was happy for the baby, but she could not help feeling jealous. She was the Captain’s assistant. Why should a day-old baby get a uniform, but not her? She had always assumed it was because she was a child, she could not work out what was happening. 

Harry had been sobered up by the doctor and had lifted Naomi onto his shoulders so that she could see clearly even though she was not that far of the Captains height herself now. Harry realised before Naomi did that the Captain and Commander were talking about her and he started making his way with Naomi on his shoulders towards the front. Harry deposited Naomi on the bar and Chakotay held her hand to steady her as she landed. Chakotay lowered himself to the floor to allow the Captain and Naomi the space for this honour. 

“Naomi Wildman. No Captain could have asked for a better Captain’s Assistant. It is my pleasure to give you your very own, and very well-deserved uniform.” Kathryn’s eyes glimmered with tears once again that day and Naomi was beaming extatically. She clicked her heels together perfectly, and enthusiastically, and saluted the Captain. Kathryn was caught unawares and mimicked the motion back to her assistant. While she was still stood to attention, Naomi flung herself at the Captain and into the biggest hug Kathryn had ever received. She was nearly knocked off balance, and many people put their hands out to steady her, but she caught herself on her own and brought the girl into her own embrace. 

There were cheers from around the room. People were chanting Naomi’s name and she was clearly bursting with pride. Sam was crying at the pure glee and joy emanating from her daughter. When the crowd died down they could hear Kathryn talking to Naomi.

“I really didn’t know they made them in these small sizes, Naomi.”

“Captain, its not that far off yours!” Tom shouted from the crowd. 

“Naomi, as my assistant, how do you think we should deal with Tom for that comment? Throw him out the airlock? Make him scrub the nacelles with his toothbrush?” The crew laughed again at her suggestions.

“Errr…” Naomi thought about it for a few seconds and clearly decided on the best course of action, turned decisively towards Tom and stuck her tongue out at him. The crew howled with laughter, and then positively rolled around on the floor when the Captain shrugged and repeated the motion with Naomi. 

The party continued. Drinks were had, laughs were many and stories were shared and reminisced. Kathryn stayed at this particular party longer than she normally would have done, she normally worried that she spoilt the fun of the crew, but tonight she needed to let her hair down with the family that was her crew. Soon it was gone midnight and the party started to wind down. They had had a long few days, with many having not slept for nearly 48 hrs, and they had a big day ahead of them. The Doctor had administered hyposprays to everyone as they left and she was confident they would be fine for tomorrow. For the first time in how many years, she could not count, Kathryn slept soundly, if only for 5 hours.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disembarking and reuniting with families.

The crew were assembled in their smartest uniforms at their stations the following morning. Naomi was on the bridge with her mother at the science station. Tom was at the helm, B’Elanna had resumed her station at Engineering on the bridge with Miral in a sling across her chest, allowing her both hands to work with. Janeway and Chakotay were sat in their seats. All were waiting for the announcement from Harry that they were good to go for their decent path and landing. It was strangely tense, like waiting for battle with an unknown alien, but instead waiting to go home to greet their families and their previous lives. 

“Incoming hail from Starfleet headquarters” Came the call they had all been waiting for from Harry. 

“On screen”

Admirals Paris and Hayes and Lieutenant Barclay appeared on the screen. 

“Captain. You are clear for your flight path to Head Quarters. See you soon. And safe flying Tom.” Admiral Paris smiled as the screen went blank. 

“You heard your father, Tom. Set a course for home. Engage.” Janeway ordered.

The bridge crew sat in awed silence as Tom entered Earths orbit smoothly and did a lap of the planet before starting the decent as San Francisco loomed into view. Tom followed the course set by Starfleet to the letter, but Kathryn was not surprised that he had added his own flare and flounce to it. They swept low over the Golden Gate Bridge, elegantly twisting and making a show of it. Naomi watched in awe at the sights from the view screen. 

Soon they were hovering ominously over the top of HQ. Harry broke the silence on the ship once again.

“Permission to land has been granted.”

Janeway locked eyes with Chakotay as she pressed her comm badge.

“All hands this is the Captain, prepare for landing.”

“Blue alert”

The lights around the bridge bathed them all in blue light. 

“Take her down gently Mr Paris.”

“Aye Captain.” Came Toms reply. 

The ship landed with an almost imperceptible bump. The crew came alive more then, Tom had done his bit, Kathryn clapped him on the shoulder as she issued the orders. 

“B’Elanna, get engineering to shut down the warp core. Tuvok, get weapons and all non-essential systems offline. Harry, send the orders for everyone to assemble in the shuttle bay as soon as they have finished their tasks. We only have a couple of minutes; we can’t keep all those people waiting out there.”

No one had mentioned it, but there was rather a large crowd visible assembled round the landing site. They all knew their families and loved ones would be among them, everyone was anxious to get off the ship. 

It was only a few minutes later that Janeway found herself in the shuttle bay alongside her senior officers. They had all been briefed as to what was to happen now, been told what they could and could not say to reporters about their journey, which was most of it, and were waiting for the order to disembark. They would be remotely dropping the shuttle hanger tail so they could file out. At last the order came and Tuvok was the first out. Janeway could have sworn he looked almost nervous at the prospect, although he would never have admitted it. 

The tail dropped slowly and the bright light of the outside world contrasted dramatically with the darkness inside the hangar. A gentle breeze rippled through the hangar and subtle sighs ran through the crew, Janeway included. Tuvok emerged first onto the ramp and cheers erupted through the crowd outside. The crew looked around at each other in amazement as the security staff followed Tuvok out as one. Engineering then science followed out. Seven and Icheb followed Science out closely. Sam, as chief science officer was holding Naomi’s hand. She beamed in her command uniform and was clearly eager to get going and not at all as daunted as the rest of the crew. Sam, Naomi, Tom, B’Elanna with Miral, Harry and the Doctor exited next as the senior staff and that left only First Officer and Captain on the ship. They locked eyes and took a deep breath. Chakotay squeezed Kathryn’s hand and stepped out into the light to follow the senior staff. Kathryn found it difficult to move her feet to leave the ship, but she did so, so that she was only a few paces behind her first officer. A captain is always the last to leave her ship. 

Kathryn resisted the urge to squint into the light as she entered it. She was all too aware that she was being watched and filmed by people from all over the federation. She had never been afraid of standing up in front of people, it was a requirement for command, but she had never been one for wanting public attention or praise. She had to remind herself not to crane her neck to look for her family. She still did so, but subtly. 

The senior staff row split, and they rounded the edges of the crew standing at perfect attention in formation in front of Voyager. The senior staff lined themselves up again with Tuvok at the head of the crew. Janeway and Chakotay fell into step with each other easily, one either side of her crew. As she walked past her incredibly well restrained crew, she noticed how each of them had tears glowing in their eyes and were brimming with pride. Kathryn was having a tough time keeping her emotions in check herself. As she rounded the front of the crew, she saw what they were facing for the first time. A large platform had been erected with many Admirals stood upon it. To the side of it was a large fenced off area which contained what could only have been families. These people were in front of and separated from the general crowd and were not Starfleet personnel, nor were they journalists. She subtly scanned the crowd and had to stop herself from faltering when she saw the loving faces of her mother and sister smiling at her with tears streaking down their faces. A small smile escaped, she blinked back tears, swallowed the lump in her throat, and turned to her first officer as they were now at the front of the crew. As one they turned and saluted the stand of Admirals, followed a moment later by the crew in unison. 

Fleet Admiral Smith approached Captain Janeway and shook her hand. The next few moments were a whirlwind for Janeway as she formally greeted these people. After a few minutes of speech form the Fleet Admiral for most of which she did not take it in. She thought it was something about Starfleet perseverance and resourcefulness, but she did not really think it embodied the remarkable achievement of her crew nor did it reflect the hardships they had gone through. She found herself on the podium looking down over her crew, stood at parade rest. She thought of the juxtaposition of how she found herself addressing them last night on a bar being heckled compared to this formal speech which had mostly been prepared for her by Starfleet. And in that moment, she realised she had completely forgotten the script with what she was meant to say. She looked from her crew, over to the amassed crowds of onlookers, the press and their families. They were all quiet now, wanting to listen to what the lost Captain would say on her return. Her crew a motley one of former criminals, Borg and children intermixed with the young Starfleet crew which had started out this journey.

“Thank you, Fleet Admiral.” She began, coughing to move the lump which seemed permanently stuck in her throat. 

“I intend to keep this speech short. There are a few people over there who are getting a bit jumpy to see us so I will not keep anyone long.” She could see that her crew had almost been given permission to look at their families for their eyes kept shifting that way. 

“First of all, I would like to thank Starfleet for their support and determination to bring us home. I would like to thank the families and friends of the crew. I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you for believing in us and welcoming us home.” She caught the eyes of her mother and sister and smiled.

“But most importantly of all, the people that I need to thank are you.” She motioned to indicate the crew.

“Starfleet has never seen a finer crew and I am proud of each and every one of you. Without every single person on that ship, we would have been dead many times over.”

“Thank you to Neelix for his unique cooking skills which I’m sure have ruined our pallets forever, he made a home in the Delta Quadrant and I wish him all the best out there. To Ensign Wildman and the science team for analysing anything interesting we came across to give Starfleet some data to analyse now we are back. To my very own Captains assistant Miss Naomi Wildman. The whole crew and I thank you for being you, and for cheering us all up whenever we had a bad day. Thank you to the Doctor for patching us all up more times than I want to count. Thank you to Seven for her invaluable knowledge and contributions. Thank you to Ensign Kim, the finest Ops officer in Starfleet. Thank you to Lieutenant Paris, for some flying skills that saved us more than once. To Lieutenant Torres and the engineering team for keeping that warp core running even when I’m sure it defied physics to do so. To Tuvok and the security team for keeping us all safe and rescuing us on more than one occasion.” Everyone was beaming, especially Naomi and Harry. Harry had gone a particular shade of beetroot as when his name was mentioned his parents had cheered loudly. Kathryn had heard it and grinned at Harry as she continued her speech. 

“I especially want to thank my First Officer Chakotay. I’ll be honest, those aren’t the words I thought I would be saying at the end of the mission when I set out at the beginning.” A smattering of laughs rumbled through the crowds; the crew sniggered.

“Thank you for being the best First Officer I could imagine, thank you for not being afraid to argue with me when I was wrong, and for making me see why. Thank you for making sure I never ran out of coffee. And thank you for sorting out the millions of problems I am probably not even aware of.” The crowd chuckled again, Janeway spoke her words directly to the person she was addressing, but her connection with Chakotay as she spoke simmered with intensity. She paused for a moment before she continued. 

“Lastly, I would like to thank those that are not here with us today. The list of casualties from this trip is far longer than any Captain should ever have. I thank them for giving their lives for us and I am sorry for not bringing them home.” A few moments silence followed out of respect. 

“Voyager has been more than a ship to us over the last seven years. She has been a battle ground, she has been nearly completely destroyed a few times, but she has also been our home. She has been where we have lived, breathed, worked and loved for the last seven years. When we were sent out for a three-week mission on a new vessel, most of us did not even pack our home comforts we would normally take with us.” She looked at Harry, thinking about his clarinet.

“And when we were dragged into the Delta Quadrant by the caretaker’s array, half our crew dead, and the ship we were supposed to be searching for there as well, forced into an alliance to find a way home. Since then we have been shot at, taken prisoner, experimented on and been faced with more challenges than any single crew should have to face. Yet we all pulled together and made the most of what we had. We kept the ship turning, kept plotting our course home. We have been together through the worst times of many of our lives, through deaths and horror. But we have also been there for each other. We have seen Neelix’s Prixin parties, weddings, births and celebrations for any number of occasions. I am proud of you all and honoured to have served as your Captain. Thank you.”

Janeway finished her speech and turned to Admiral Paris for confirmation that that was ok. She knew it was nothing like the speech she had been expected to give, but she thought this conveyed the raw emotion and message much better as it was from the heart. That and she had flat out forgotten the lines she had memorised the previous day. Maybe it was the affect of the alcohol. Or the subsequent hypospray. 

She descended the stairs to stand with her senior staff and crew once more. 

“Crew of Voyager. Welcome home. Dismissed.” Came the exclamation of the Fleet Admiral. Before Kathryn had really processed what was happening, the gates to the family compound opened and crewmen ran to meet their families who were moving in towards them. 

Kathryn found she was rooted to the spot people rushing past her in both directions. She suddenly found someone was tugging on her arm, she absently followed. She realised it was Chakotay who was pulling her arm.

“Are you ok Kathryn?” He asked as he moved to delicately pin a small piece of hair back into her bun which had come loose as she descended the stairs. 

“Is this real Chakotay? Please tell me this whole thing isn’t some weird dream?”

“Kathryn its very real. You did it. We are home. This is Earth.” Chakotay looked over her shoulder.

“And I think there are a few people here who might make it seem more real.”

Kathryn turned around slowly and was met with her sister and mother only a few meters away. Chakotay respectfully stepped back. Not wanting to intrude on this moment and knowing that his sister was on her way here, but would not arrive for another few days. 

Kathryn ran the last few steps into her mothers waiting arms. Phoebe enveloped both of them in her arms as much as she could around her heavily pregnant stomach. The three women sobbed and laughed together without saying anything for a while. Phoebe detached herself and ran up to Chakotay. He turned in surprise as she ran at him, far faster that he would have thought possible for someone so pregnant. Phoebe gave him a massive hug. Kathryn turned to watch, confused why her sister felt the need to give her First Officer a hug. 

Chakotay was shocked but hugged her back instinctively, she was so much like Kathryn in physic and looks, except for the whole being pregnant thing.

“That’s from Sekaya.” Phoebe laughed at the stunned Chakotay. Until that point, he had remained contained in his emotions, but the mention of his sister started tears forming in the corner of his eyes, which he blinked to get rid of, but only succeeded in making them fall delicately down his cheeks. 

Kathryn turned back to her mother, still entangled in her arms.

“Oh mom, I’ve missed you so much. I can’t believe I’m home.”

“I can’t believe you’re here either. And what’s this I hear about you coming through inside a Borg cube!?” Her mother mock scolded. “My daughter never does anything by half, does she?”

Kathryn scoffed with laughter and tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know where you get your information mother, but you are incorrect.” They giggled, just pleased to be in each other’s company. Kathryn pulled her mother in for a tight hug.

“It was a Borg sphere actually” She whispered, correcting her mother quietly who rolled her eyes and they moved together towards Chakotay and Phoebe. 

“Phoebe, I guess you’ve introduced yourself. Mom, this is Chakotay, my First Officer and good friend.”

“Very nice to meet you in person Mrs Janeway. I see where Kathryn gets her good looks now.” 

Kathryn blushed deeply. Both from the compliment, and from the fact that he had called her Kathryn in front of other people. Until this point it had been a private thing between them, but she supposed she would have to get used to it now they were out of the command structure. She had to admit, she liked bringing the two Kathryn’s together, the one with her family, and the one with Chakotay. It made her deeply happy for reasons she could not fathom. 

“Oh Chakotay, don’t flatter me. And call me Gretchen, please!” 

Kathryn looked around her at the scenes unfolding around her. Not too far away, the Paris family reunion was not as awkward as she had feared it might have been. B’Elanna seemed quite comfortable to be hugging Maura Paris and Tom’s sisters were fussing over Miral. 

“So where are the little ones then Phoebe? I’m dying to meet my niece and nephew!” Kathryn turned to ask her sister. 

“Katie and Kian are with Helen and Laura Paris’s husbands and their children. They were at the back of the crowd, so they all saw you land, but they have gone home. We didn’t want to have too much excitement at once, and we thought it might be best for me not to have them hanging on like limpets all day too. Besides, I wanted my sister for a bit without worrying about two terrible toddler twins” Kathryn laughed with her sister at her deliberate use of alliteration to make Kathryn laugh. 

“As long as I get to meet them soon!” Kathryn smiled at her younger sister. 

Maura Paris looked up and waved the Janeway clan over to join the Paris festivities. They sauntered over but Chakotay hesitated, unsure whether he was part of this invitation. Kathryn grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. 

“You’re just as much part of that family as me. We’re both Mirals god parents”

“Oh congratulations you two!” Phoebe exclaimed.

Kathryn hadn’t thought she’d been close enough or loud enough for anyone to hear but Phoebes loud response had been enough for several people around to turn towards them. Kathryn became aware that she was still holding Chakotays arm and people were wondering what they were being congratulated about. Oh well, she thought. Who cares if the betting pool reopens again now anyway? She thought to herself, dragging Chakotay along with her. 

Owen, still in his admirals’ uniform, was the first to greet Kathryn as she reached the Paris family with Chakotay. He pulled her into a big bear hug which all but lifted her off the ground.

“Well that was what I wanted to do when I greeted you on that bloody band stand. It was so hard to be Admiral Paris when you were all stood there rather than Owen who wanted to run to his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.”

“I imagine, I just wanted to run to mom and Phoebe too. I also have to confess that I totally forgot what speech I was meant to make so I just went with it. I hope I didn’t say anything that will get us in trouble.” Kathryn frowned inwardly at the last thought. 

“Katie, you did fine! I’m sure whoever wrote the speech you were meant to give will be peeved, but I’m sure it was boring. Yours was much better, much more personal and really reflected the journey you all had. And I don’t think you announced anything classified so you’re safe there too. Don’t worry about it.” Admiral Paris replied and Kathryn let out a sigh. 

“Chakotay!” Admiral Paris shook his hand warmly and pulled him in for a half hug. “It’s nice to meet you in person finally.” 

“The feeling is mutual Sir.” Chakotay replied. Owen turned back to Gretchen who was now fussing over little Miral and Tom. 

B’Elanna manoeuvred herself away from Toms sister Laura and sidled over next to Chakotay and Janeway who were on the edge of the Paris Janeway gathering. 

“How are you coping with the meeting of your in-laws B’Elanna?” Chakotay asked his friend.

“I was a bit daunted at first. And overwhelmed. I hadn’t expected them to except me quite as easily as they have. They seem genuinely thrilled to meet me. I suppose Miral helps there.” B’Elanna quietly chuckled. 

“They’re genuinely nice people B’Elanna.” Kathryn smiled reassuringly. “If a bit overbearing at times, but don’t tell them I said that.”

“A big family is not something I’d thought I would ever want, but I have to say it is rather reassuring that there are lots of people there for you. It’s like Voyager. I hadn’t really considered it before you said the other night, but we are a family. A big dysfunctional Voyager family. And I’m proud I was part of that.” B’Elanna shrugged.

“I’m proud of all of us B’Elanna” Chakotay replied. Kathryn did not really know what to say to her chief engineer without getting over emotional, and she thought that might scare her away. 

Kathryn greeted the rest of the Paris clan, reconnecting with people she had known from childhood.   
James had pulled Kathryn into a bear hug, much like his father had. 

“James! It’s good to see you too! I do hope you have been looking after my sister.” Kathryn greeted her brother-in-law. 

After a while with the Janeway and Paris clan, Kathryn and Chakotay separated off from the group, making their rounds separately, introducing themselves to the families of the crew. They made sure those that had no one waiting for them had found themselves a home. Most of those without someone waiting had been swallowed up by another crewmember’s family, happily included as part of their personal celebrations. Kathryn found Seven, Icheb, the Doctor and Tuvok soon into her rounds. They were stood together, the Doctor talking animatedly to an elderly blonde woman, Seven observing. Icheb and Tuvok stood slightly off to the side, not partaking in the conversation, but offering moral support. 

“Captain. I hope you found your reunion with your family as pleasing as you hoped it would be?” Seven asked Janeway as she approached. 

“Yes, thank you Seven. It certainly is wonderful to be able to see them again.” Kathryn smiled at the former Borg. 

“Captain, may I introduce you to Irene Hanson. My aunt. She has come to greet me on my arrival to Earth.” Seven said.

“Oh! Very nice to meet you Captain! Thank you so much for everything you have done for Annika! I was shocked when the nice Starfleet people turned up at my door to say that you were home.” Irene shook Janeways hand enthusiastically while she talked. Kathryn wondered to herself how well Seven would adapt with Irene as a presence in her life. Kill or cure was how Kathryn expected it to be. 

“Pleasure to meet you too Mrs Hanson. And I’m very glad you could be here for Seven. I’m very proud of everything she has achieved over the years on Voyager, and I’m sure I will be proud of everything she does next.” Kathryn smiled reassuringly at her protégé and carefully extracted herself from Aunt Irenes iron clutches on her hand with the help of a distraction in the form of the Doctor. 

“Tuvok, are your family on the way here?” Kathryn asked her friend.

“Yes Captain. In fact, T’Pel was already on her way this direction. She was heading to a conference on Jupiter Station. She will arrive on Earth tomorrow as I understand it. My sons and their families are making their way here now also, they should arrive at the beginning of next week” Came Tuvoks stoic reply. 

“I’m glad T’Pel is on her way. You may be a Vulcan Tuvok, but I know you missed her. I’m glad you don’t have to wait much longer to see her.” Kathryn rested her hand on the Vulcan’s arm, the universal sign of emotional support. She knew Tuvok did not need it, but she always thought he appreciated these gestures from her all the same. 

“Indeed.” was the reply from Tuvok with the customary raised eyebrow. 

Kathryn excused herself, satisfied that Seven Icheb, the Doctor and Tuvok would look after each other and Aunt Irene. 

She had been introduced to many families and friends of her crew. Praising the courage of whichever crew member it was, and sharing the odd funny story when she deemed it appropriate. She made a particular effort to talk to the former marquis and ensure that their families were at ease with such a Starfleet show, but she need not have worried. They were often perhaps less afraid of her and her rank, which she frankly found quite refreshing. 

She politely extracted herself from Ayalas delightful family along with Vorik who had been adopted by them for the celebrations. She took two steps back in the direction of her family, when she heard a shrill voice she vaguely recognised shouting her name. 

“Captain Janeway! Captain Janeway!”

Kathryn turned to the sound of the noise and was nearly floored by a small woman hurtling towards her to catch her attention. 

The woman flung herself at Kathryn and gave her a massive hug. They were not far off the same height but very different in appearance. Captain Janeway was in her black and red uniform. The woman who had flung herself into her embrace was older than her. And she was wearing a massive yellow fluffy coat which engulfed her almost completely. She had a bright multi-coloured home knitted woollen hat on. Kathryn could not see her face where she had buried it in her neck. Kathryn held on tight to the woman as she cried mercilessly into Kathryn’s shoulder, muttering words of thanks for bringing her son home. 

A photographer had been allowed in to capture the precious moments of reunion and he happened to capture the image of a shocked Janeway, with a sobbing mother on her shoulder. The whole background of the image could not have been more perfect either. People had turned to look at the scene for the shouting so all around were members of crew, holding hands or hugging people dressed in civilian clothes. Behind the woman who had jumped on Kathryn, a very red-faced Harry Kim was running after his mother in an obviously embarrassed attempt to stop her from attacking his Captain. The image would be used throughout the press as a light-hearted and emotional moment of the homecoming of Starfleet’s most famous ship of the day. 

Kathryn continued hugging Mrs Kim, having realised who it was when she noticed the very embarrassed Harry running along after her. Kathryn shared a smile with Harry, reassuring him that it was ok. 

“Mom, do you think you could stop strangling the Captain now please?” Harry pleaded to his mother when he got beside them.

“Oh, yes. Sorry. Sorry.” Mrs Kim muttered as she disentangled herself from Kathryn.

“Oh not to worry, Harry. No harm done. It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs Kim.”

Chakotay had returned to the Paris and Janeway families a few minutes prior to the scene with Harry Kim’s mother. He stood next to B’Elanna who was now trying to settle a whimpering Miral. It seemed the long days had finally caught up with the little one. 

“Did you meet Harry’s family already? Me and Tom went to introduce ourselves earlier. She’s not really what I expected is she? She’s so loud and bubbly and carefree. Harry was so stuffy and green when I first met him. I suppose he must be more like his father.”

“B’Elanna, you saw him when he let his hair down so to speak. I think he is the exact mix of the two of them personally.” Chakotay laughed with his longest friend. 

They watched their Captain interact with Harry and his family from afar, unable to hear the conversation, but able to discern the praise that she had for Harry and the friendly ease with which she interacted with them. After a while B’Elanna broke the easy silence that ran between them.

“She really is something else isn’t she?” 

Chakotay merely nodded in response.

“If any other captain had been in charge of Voyager, none of us would have been here would they. Especially not us, not the former Marquis.” B’Elanna mused, deep in thought. 

“The thing is though; she has no idea how special she is. She doesn’t realise that no one else could do what she has done.” Chakotay answered, his voice low. They didn’t want to be overheard by the families around them. 

“I think that’s what makes her great though. She really doesn’t realise it.” B’Elanna answered quietly. 

“I really should thank you properly for the honour of being Miral’s Godfather. Nothing has made me happier. And I am going to spoil that little girl rotten and so will Kathryn, you won’t know what has hit you there B’Elanna.” 

“There are no two people I would rather pick. You’ve been my best friend and mentor for so long, I know you will love that little girl as much as we do. I wasn’t sure how the Captain would take it” B’Elanna emphasised her use of Captain as opposed to Chakotays use of her name in public.

“She seemed so surprised. She seems pretty happy about it though; I hope we didn’t overstep some line with her.” B’Elanna mused. 

“She’s really flattered B’Elanna, I promise you. I’m not sure she’s really been around children much as an adult, apart from Naomi. I think the thought scares her a bit, but you should have seen her when we were replicating that adorable little babygrow. She’s totally smitten. As am I.”

“Thanks Chakotay. Speaking of you being smitten, how is Kathryn? And I heard through the grapevine that you were dating Seven. Spill Chakotay.” B’Elanna verbally poked her friend. She thought how strange it felt referring to the Captain as Kathryn, B’Elanna had never really found herself naturally without thinking about it, yet Chakotay seemed very used to it. She knew they were close friends, but this seemed to go deeper than even B’Elanna had realised. Tom would have a field day when she told him about this conversation she thought. 

“B’Elanna.” Chakotay said in a low warning voice to his friend. He knew he would not dissuade her from the interrogation, so he sighed and continued. 

“I went on two dates with Seven. She flattered me with her interest but it’s over. Nothing serious, did you really think it would be. As for Kathryn, we’re friends B’Elanna. We can talk about this later. But not now.”

B’Elanna nodded, indicating she had heard and understood that this was not a subject he was going to talk about in the middle of lots of people, even if they did not think anyone could hear them. She let the subject drop for the moment, vowing to continue the conversation in private later.

Soon, Starfleet personnel started moving amongst them, distributing PADDs with key codes and locations of their quarters. They were being housed in a Starfleet Academy accommodation block which was newly built, designed for the student intake for the next term. It was a block for families of varying sizes, terraced housing onto a central courtyard. 

Kathryn looked around the small house with her mother. Phoebe had left to find her family. They would be meeting in the park to the side of the compound the following day so she could meet her niece and nephew. Kathryn was exhausted. She had had a decent sleep, and it was not much past lunch time now. She had won battles on no sleep for days on end, but the emotional day had completely floored her already.

Kathryn slumped down on the sofa in the small kitchen-come-living area. Gretchen moved out of her line of sight into the kitchen area. When she returned, she held a cup out to Kathryn with one hand and took a long gulp of her own with the other. 

“Oh mom. Real coffee? I missed this the most, well apart from you of course!” She laughed with her mother. They comfortably chatted for a while, catching up on all the small things they had missed in each other’s lives over the last seven years. Eventually, Gretchen broached the topic she did not really want to, but she wanted to know how her eldest daughter had coped with it. 

“I spoke to Mark yesterday as soon as I heard you were on your way here.”

“You did? How is he?” Kathryn enquired nonchalantly. 

“He’s good. He and Carla have two children now, a four year old and a one year old.”

“I’m glad he’s happy mom.”

“I thought I would inform him that you were going to be home. It would be rather a shock to find out your former fiancé has arrived back on Earth 60 years earlier than we thought and to find it out by seeing your face plastered all over the news, don’t you?”

“Well yes, I suppose that would be a shock wouldn’t it. Maybe more so for Carla.”

“Kathryn, how did you really feel when you found out he’d moved on? And how do you feel about it now you are back?”

“Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about anything now I’m back. I’m still half convinced I will wake up and be back on Voyager to find we have been overrun by another telepathic pitcher plant or something.” Kathryn laughed Gretchen smiled at her daughter, not fully understanding what she had just said. Kathryn continued.

“It hurt when I got that letter. I’d been faithful to him, and the thought that he’d gotten married and moved on hit me where it hurt. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised I hadn’t even thought about him for a while, I didn’t have that deep ache of missing him. I was using him as an emotional shield from feeling anything else, and nothing more. I genuinely hope he’s happy.”

“When I spoke to him earlier, I had to convince him not to come and meet you off the ship. It took a lot of reasoning to explain why that might not have been the best idea. He told me to pass the message on that he is sorry for moving on, but to tell you that he is happy with his life now. And he is really pleased you made it home and you should call him whenever you feel up to it, he would like to hear from you.” Gretchen told her daughter. 

“Thanks mom, I think I will call him. I’ll just give myself some time to adjust to being back first.”

“So speaking of moving on from your ex-fiancé… anyone else I should know about? You and Chakotay seem quite close...” Gretchen prodded her long-lost daughter in the stomach and they lay next to each other comfortably on the sofa.

“Mother! I see where Phoebe gets her nosy side from now too! That was one of the first things she asked me too!” Kathryn laughed with her mother before quietening down and forcing herself to answer seriously.

“Honestly, there really wasn’t time for that sort of thing for me. I was the Captain. Anyone on the ship were my subordinates and I would have potentially had to order to their death, I couldn’t deal with worrying about my impartiality in situations like that. The stress was too much as it was.”

Gretchen hugged her daughter to her. She knew her daughter must have been through hell and back in the last few years. She was not oblivious to it, the widow of an Admiral lost while working for Starfleet. 

“Chakotay?” She questioned her daughter again on the subject she had avoided from the last question, not that she wanted to push, but they seemed so close. “He was the only person I heard call you Kathryn rather than Captain.”

“He’s my best friend mom. We spent so much time out there together, we clicked. He could challenge me and put up with my bad habits, and we could laugh at things when there didn’t seem to be much to laugh at. There was a time when I thought things might go further than that between us, but that was when I was still engaged to Mark. We were alone on a planet for six weeks. Did I tell you that? We contracted a virus and ordered the crew to leave us behind. We thought we were going to be alone on that planet together forever. If we’d have stayed there for much longer, things would have changed. I thought he was falling for me too, but then the ship came back with a cure. It was over before it started, and we had to go back to Starfleet protocols being in the way. It wasn’t easy, but it nurtured the deep friendship we have today. Even that waned a bit in the later years though. He dated Seven for a bit too, he says that it is over, but I’m not sure he gave it enough of a try. I lost my chance with him long ago even if I ever wanted it mom.” 

Mother and daughter were quiet for a while. 

“Did you ever tell him that you were in love with him?” Gretchen whispered barely audibly. 

“Mom, I’m not sure I have admitted it to myself yet.” Kathryn sighed back then changed the subject.   
“Shall we go down to the mess hall? I think lunch is being served in a few minutes. I’m excited to eat something other than leola root.”

“Do I even want to ask what that is?” Gretchen laughed at her daughter as they exited the small house. 

“Something I never want to see again as long as I live.” Kathryn chuckled.

“Well that’s no way to talk about your First Officer!” The deep teasing voice came from the left of the Janeway women.

“Chakotay! Nice to see we are neighbours here too! I was just informing my mother of the delights of leola root.”

“I’m sure there is some still in the stores somewhere. In fact, I’m fairly sure there was some pickled which Neelix insisted would only taste good if it was matured for a year or two. We could get a sample, maybe feed it to Tom next time he steps out of line.” Chakotay chuckled and they fell into step together. First Officer and Captain, as in tune with each other as ever. 

Gretchen hung back, observing her daughter with her best friend. 

“Katie, go ahead without me. I’ll join you in a minute, I’m just going to check Phoebe got home alright.”  
Kathryn and Chakotay made their way across the courtyard which separated all of their temporary homes towards the mess hall. They were naming all the ways Neelix had tried to cook his beloved leola root and laughing with the carefree abandon which they had not felt for a long time.

Gretchen peered at them from her position in Kathryn’s front room. There was definitely more there than nothing. Gretchen mentally checked herself and shook her head.

“Katie is over 40 years old, in a moment of emotional change and she can handle herself. I do not need to be interfering in her life.” Gretchen said out loud the resolve not to try and match make or pry. 

“But talking to Maura about it later will help me clear my mind.” She reasoned, talking to her best friend was definitely not interfering.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Play time with the children.

Gretchen Janeway looked across the playground at her daughter. Kathryn was standing as the Captain of a space ship once again, only this time it was a smaller one which was firmly stuck to the floor. Kathryn had been introduced to her toddler nephew and niece, as well as the five other offspring from Tom’s sisters, and they had all quickly insisted that they should play on the climbing frame which was in the shape of a Starfleet vessel. 

The games had quickly spiralled to include nearly all of the child relatives of Voyagers crew, and quite a few of the adults as well. Tuvok was once again surrounded with the youngest children, the Vulcan seemed to have a way with the babies, and they happily sat with him and T’Pel out of the way of any harm. 

The older children had moved off now, and were playing with one another on the other side of the playground, but Kathryn and Chakotay still played on the ship with the younger children. Kathryn and Chakotay had lost track of the names of most of the children who weren’t related to Kathryn or Tom in the chaos of the games, but all the children seemed quite happy playing together. Kian was sat on Kathryn’s lap, and Katie was happily bossing another child around for playing the game wrong. 

“I think she takes after her name sake.” Chakotay said, motioning his head towards the little Katie. Chakotay was quickly distracted by another child, so he did not see when the little boy Katie was ordering around tripped over his shoelaces. Katie tried to help him up, but the boy was a few years older than her and rather larger. The boy’s bottom lip had started to wobble, so Kathryn quickly moved Kian off his lap, and went and scooped the young boy up off the floor. She had seen him fall, so was sure he had not sustained any injuries, so instead she thought to distract him. She brought him to the helm of the toy ship and held him up and encouraged him to play with the toy controls. Chakotay moved to Kathryn’s side. 

“You’re a natural at this you know. I thought you didn’t like kids.” He sniggered at her.

“Not didn’t like, didn’t know how to deal with.” Kathryn passed the young boy to Chakotay as they were talking.

“Well you certainly do. I…” Chakotay stalled when the young boy looked up at him and said the word uncle in his native tongue. Chakotay looked the boy in the face properly for the first time.

“Paka?” Chakotay suddenly realised who this young boy was. 

“How long do you think it will take them?” Phoebe asked her friend as they sat on the grassy area to the side of the play area. 

“Depends on what it is. How long do you think it will take them to realise they are in love, or how long do you think it will take for them to realise they have gained Paka in the mix of children?” Sekaya quipped back. She had released Paka to join Phoebe’s toddlers when she had arrived, not wanting to interrupt her brother while he was clearly enjoying himself. 

As they watched, Kathryn and Chakotay were sat together comfortably with lots of toddlers and young children crawling all over them and running rings round them. 

“Now tell me you don’t think those two have chemistry. They would have cute babies too.” Phoebe blurted, louder than she intended for Louise and Mike Ayala sniggered. 

“You just want us to be sisters, and you’ve got babies on the brain.” Sekaya teased back, Phoebe knew that Sekaya would admit, she had never seen her brother such as at peace as he had been on Voyager and with Kathryn.

At that point, Chakotay picked Paka up and looked deeply into the little boys’ eyes. Sekaya stood herself up as Kathryn took the little boy off him once again, and Chakotay bolted towards them. He reached his sister in an astounding pace, and scooped her off the ground and swung her round in a tight embrace. Phoebe watched the siblings happily reunited, talking in a language she could not understand. A few moments later, Kathryn joined Phoebe. She had a slightly confused Paka balanced on one hip, Katie was monopolising the other hand and dragging her towards Phoebe. Kian had wrapped himself around one of Kathryns legs. Phoebe laughed at her sister.

“You know how you confessed to me yesterday that you were anxious about meeting my kids and them not liking you…?” She teased her elder sister. “Just know you have a lot of babysitting duties to catch up on!” Kathryn just laughed at her sister. 

Chakotay approached with Sekaya in tow. 

“Kathryn, meet my sister Sekaya. And I do believe you have already met Phoebe.”

“Pleasure to finally meet you Sekaya. And little Paka here.” Kathryn handed the quiet little boy over to his mother as she hugged her in greeting. 

The rest of the day was pleasurable. It was an uncharacteristically warm day for the time of year and the families of Voyager spent the day relaxing in the park, enjoying the sound of children playing. 

There were a couple of outdoor table tennis tables in the gym area of the park, and Tom and Harry had quickly set up a tournament. Tom had promised the prize would be 100 replicator rations. A rather humorous prize, considering they did not need rations anymore.

Many of the crew and families had played, and so far Tom was winning. Phoebe sat with B’Elanna and Miral, enjoying getting to know each other and watching Chel was losing badly to Vorik. 

“We’ve had nearly everyone up here now. Next two are…. My lovely wife and Phoebe Janeway!” Tom bellowed to the crowd. The two women sat about laughing. 

“If you think I’m playing in this condition Thomas, you can think again!” Phoebe admonished through laughter while rubbing her hugely pregnant stomach. 

“Its been a hectic few days for me too Tom in case you’d forgotten.” B’Elanna motion to indicate the few days old Miral. Tom knew full well that the Klingon in B’Elanna was more than capable of a game of table tennis at this stage, but was grateful she was actually using an excuse to put her feet up for a bit. 

“Can we nominate champions to play for our honour?” B’Elanna shouted back before Tom moved on to find his next victims. Phoebe looked pleased with this idea too. 

Tom shrugged and nodded in confirmation. Phoebe did not have to think too long about who she was going to pick.

“Then I pick Katie!” Phoebe shouted. 

“Captain Janeway! Come on down! Your sister has nominated you to play on her behalf!” 

Kathryn felt herself being pushed towards the table as she heard her name and shot the infamous death glare at Phoebe. Unfortunately, there were few it did not have the desired effect on, other Janeway’s were included in this. 

B’Elanna barely had to think about it. Phoebe had, probably unknowingly, picked the best game player on Voyager. But if there was someone that could play her without being intimidated, as well as being able to read her like a book, Chakotay was going to be her best bet. 

“I pick Chakotay!” B’Elanna’s voice echoed out, nearly everyone was now watching in anticipation as the Captain and First Officer were squaring each other off in mock readiness for a fight.

“Oh you’re going down Commander.” Kathryn flexed and cracked her knuckles. 

“Even if I sat down, you’d still need a chair to reach me.” Chakotay mocked back, taking a step closer to her to emphasise their height difference. 

“She barely reaches his pecks!” Phoebe exclaimed. B’Elanna sniggered at how different her captain was from the woman sat next to her, though Kathryn did definitely have a playful fun streak when she let it out of its cage. 

The match started in earnest. Those that were not voyager crew found that they had severely underestimated the captain. They had all assumed she was a large personality and a brain to be reckoned with. What they had not anticipated was the agility, fitness and determination with which she conducted herself. 

The game proved to be evenly matched, but in the end, Kathryn won by a single point. Sweaty and breathless from the intense match they shook hands at a game well played and returned to teasing each other as they had been before.

“Well I honestly thought they were going to kiss at the end of that, the intensity.” Gretchen remarked. Her and James had retuned to Phoebes side having rounded their kids up. 

“That or fuck each other senseless over the table if no one was watching.” Phoebe replied. B’Elanna choked a little on the drink she had just taken a sip of. Gretchen used her Janeway death glare at her daughter and growled her name in a warning voice. James looked rather embarrassed at the crudeness of his wife. Sekaya and Sam Wildman tried not to giggle too loudly. 

“What. It’s my hormones. Don’t blame me. Ask the doctor if you don’t believe me.” Phoebe pretended to be unphased by the reaction she caused, but really she revelled in it, enjoying the chance to be a bit naughty and tease her sister.


	6. Chapter 6

“What do you mean it was necessary Kathryn? How on Earth could that have been necessary?” Chakotay all but shouted. He was angry, Kathryn could feel the anger roll off him in waves. He had met her out of their respective debriefing rooms and escorted her back to their accommodation. She had known that he must have found out what she had done during the debriefings that day, but it was only when she reluctantly accepted his offer to come in to his house to talk about it, that she knew just how angry about this he was. 

“It was the only logical thing to do Chakotay. I’m not having any of my crew having to go through any more stress now we are home. It was part of the deal. Do you not trust me to have thought this through?”

“I know that you have thought this through for everyone but yourself and the people that care about you! When you said you had guaranteed us all pardons, I didn’t think for a second that you did not include yourself in that. Why did you do it? Why did you send them a list of all of your infractions? Do you want to be court marshalled? Most of those things on there were not your fault at all! You should not have taken responsibility for them.” 

“Chakotay, the things I have done which rest solely on my shoulders would be enough to land me with a court marshal anyway. By me taking everything else and getting the guarantee that no one else would have charges levelled against them, I ensured that they would all be safe. If they want to lock me up for what I did, they will do it anyway without the other things. My gamble is that they will see the logic in everything we did and clear me. There are very few decisions I do not stand by. But if they don’t agree with me, well then it’s just me that has to face the music, not everyone else.” Kathryn’s voice had raised more at her impassioned defence of her actions. 

Chakotay took a few deep, steadying breaths.

“Kathryn, I can’t believe what you’ve done. You’ve sacrificed yourself for your crew again. Did you not think to share this with me? That as your first officer, I should share this with you? We made those decisions together, I should at least face them too.” 

“I couldn’t Chakotay. I couldn’t because as far as I knew, you and the Marquis were still wanted as terrorists. I had to bargain with them. I had to get a deal before I agreed to land the ship.” Kathryn answered quietly. 

“Kathryn, your loyalty and love for your crew is outstanding, but you can’t fight all our battles for us.” The atmosphere in the room seemed to drop down a notch from anger. 

“Out of curiosity, what would you have done if they had refused to give in to your demands.” Chakotay queried, a small smile of amusement playing at the edge of his mouth.

“I don’t know. I do usually get want I want.” She smiled coyly. “I suppose I would have refused to land, threatened to destroy all the technology we amassed?” She shrugged. 

They sat in silence for a while, both contemplating. 

“You said you only regretted a few of your decisions. Can I ask which ones?” Chakotay finally broke the silence to ask. 

“Noah Lessing. Everything about the Equinox.” Kathryn answered immediately and honestly. 

They were silent again for a few moments before Kathryn spoke again. 

“Honestly they were more interested whether I broke one certain piece of protocol above all else. And it was one I hadn’t. Really quite infuriating.” 

“Section 6a, subsection 12?” Chakotay asked. Kathryn’s eyebrows shot up her forehead and nodded. “They asked me an awful lot of questions about that too.” Chakotay sighed. 

“And what did you tell them.” Kathryn asked quietly. 

“Well I told them that I had not broken that rule while a member of Starfleet. I told them about Seska, but they didn’t seem that bothered by it.” Chakotay was quiet again, lost inside his own head. 

“Did they keep questioning you about New Earth too?” Kathryn asked, knowing where his head probably was.

“Yes. A lot. The insinuation, the assumption that we had abandoned all protocols and jumped each other the second we got on that planet was, well, insulting.” 

“They basically kept insisting that it was not possible for me to have been able to keep my urges to myself for the last seven years. And especially not when we were left on a planet.” Kathryn trailed off, thinking about how much longer it would have been on New Earth before she gave in. Not that long she thought with a sigh. “What did you tell them?” She asked.

“The truth.” Chakotay replied. “That we thought we were going to be stuck there forever, but we never got that far before Voyager arrived to take us back.”

“I spoke about the tomatoes more than I think they might have liked.” Kathryn confessed and carried on. “I told them the same. That I was engaged to Mark, that I didn’t want to give up on the hope that Voyager would return for us. That it cemented the deep rooting friendship between us that makes us the fantastic command team that we are.” 

Chakotay smiled back at her and was about to reply when the doorbell rang out throughout the house. Kathryn and Chakotay both jumped backwards at the sound. They did not realise how close they had gotten to each other while talking. 

Chakotay answered his door quickly.

“Tuvok! What a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you?” 

“I was looking for the Captain and was reliably informed that she was here. I wish to discuss the day’s debriefings with her, and yourself, if you wish.”

“Of course, Tuvok, that is precisely what we were doing. Tea?” Chakotay asked as he ushered the Vulcan into his small living room. 

“Commander, may I ask why you placed myself in such a large accommodation when yourself and the Captain seem to have taken some of the smallest houses?”

Kathryn looked questioningly from Tuvok to Chakotay. She was under the impression that Starfleet had assigned quarters, not Chakotay. It made their living arrangements being next door to one another more than a coincidence. 

“Well Tuvok, I knew that your family was rather large and would need somewhere to stay. Starfleet tried to assign the houses but they got it all wrong, giving Tom and B’Elanna separate houses for instance and making other’s share which myself and the Captain got the largest houses. I took it upon myself to redistribute people so that they would fit. And myself and the Captain ended up with two of the smaller houses. I hope you don’t mind?” Chakotay explained to Tuvok, asking the final question to Kathryn. 

“Not at all Chakotay. It’s just me in there and my mother occasionally. Plenty of room, I’d much rather the larger houses went to big families that need accommodating.” Kathryn was glad he had done this, she would not have felt right having such a large house while families were cooped up or sharing. 

“Very logical commander. Now Captain, may I please ask you of your logic behind the deal you negotiated with Starfleet prior to our return.” 

Kathryn groaned. This was going to be a long night if she had to explain herself to all the senior staff.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The senior staff gather for an informal get together in Tom and B'Elanna's accommodation.

Gretchen surveyed the room around her. They were in Tom and B’Elanna’s living room and people were crammed on sofas, beanbags and on the floor to fit in. It might have been one of the larger houses, but it felt rather cosy. Maura Paris shared the small sofa with her. Owen had been called away from the event to sort something out at Starfleet. Her daughter Phoebe sat in an armchair, her large belly affording her this luxury. James was sat on the floor at her feet massaging them absentmindedly. They were the picture of marital bliss, and Gretchen was so happy for them, expecting their third child any day now. 

Sekaya sat talking to Sam Wildman. Naomi and Icheb chatting animatedly to her father beside them. The sofa opposite to where Gretchen sat was the awkward sofa. Seven, Tuvok and T’Pel all sat the stiffest of the rest of the friends, though they did seem to be enjoying themselves in their own way. The doctor perched on the arm of the sofa, regaling all that would listen about his recent visit to Starfleet medical to inform them of his recent advances in the field of medicine. Gretchen could see James grinning. He worked for them himself but did not want to ruin the evening for himself by revealing it so kept his mouth shut. He would have a detailed conversation about this another day. 

Sat on the bean bags next to the fire were her daughter, Chakotay, Tom and B’Elanna. Since they had been home, Gretchen had become aware of how much they drifted towards one another, even when in very large crowds. It made Gretchen very happy to think that Kathryn had found these people that she could rely on in times of danger, but also in moments of happiness too. 

The door rang and Tom bounded up to get it.

“We tried old fashioned knocking first but you didn’t hear us. We didn’t want to wake the baby.” Harry could be heard to say from the hallway. Miral was asleep in her room and Katie, Kian and Paka were asleep in the guest bedroom upstairs.

“Don’t worry Harry, B’Elanna has set up some sound dampening field so they can’t hear us, but we can hear them. I don’t know how it works, so don’t ask me.” Tom held his hand up, forestalling his friends question. “You must be Libby. Pleasure to meet you, I’m Tom.” 

Harry and Libby were ushered through by Tom. 

“Everyone, this is Libby. Now everyone is here, lets get the party started!” Tom disappeared into the kitchen as Harry introduced everyone to Libby properly. Gretchen could tell the young girl was weary of her reception and seemed particularly weary of Kathryn. She must be Starfleet then too, she thought. No one who did not know of the things she had achieved would be scared of the small red head in a dress with her legs curled under her on a bean bag. She chuckled to herself as Tom reappeared with a tray full of glasses and champagne. 

“To being home!” Tom called out, the rest of the room echoing his calls. 

The impromptu senior staff party was more fun that Kathryn had thought it would be. In the last few days, she had had a conversation with all of them about her actions with regards to taking the full responsibilities of any offences. They had all been pretty angry with her, but she knew she would have been too if the roles had been reversed. Kathryn was just pleased that they had all put it aside and held no grudge. 

Tom announced that he had a small show for us. 

“There better not be any holographic strippers this time.” Chakotay groaned to Harry who was sat next to him. “Tom’s stag party. A 20th century tradition apparently.” He whispered in Kathryn’s ear in response to her questioning look. 

“The doctor has kindly provided us with a slideshow of his holoimages entitled voyager through the ages. Doctor, if you please.” 

Everyone repositioned themselves once again so that they could see the wall where the images were projected. Kathryn found herself next to Chakotay and Harry and she leaned up against her mothers legs as she sat on a flat beanbag in front of the sofa. 

The first photo was one the families were familiar with. The full staff photograph of them in front of Voyager not long into their journey. 

“Oh, we’ve seen that one!” Phoebe exclaimed. The crew gave her a puzzled look. The doctor managed to blush, once again overcoming his programming. 

“When they first told us you were still alive, they had a few photos to show us.” Phoebe explained to the stunned half of the audience. 

Kathryn and B’Elanna made quick eye contact, both assessing quickly that the other had no knowledge of it. 

“Doctor. Care to explain.” Kathryn said from her position on the floor. She did not move, but those that were not crew suddenly found themselves shrinking into their seats. Her tone was not one they had heard before, and they suddenly realised how this small, kind, funny woman could command a star ship and face down species hell-bent on their destruction. 

“err… well. I knew you would not have allowed me to try if I had asked, so I just did it. I thought your families might appreciate a few photos as proof that you were alive.”

“But how? We had to purge your subroutines so that you could fit through the Hirogen relay? How did you hide it while Lieutenant Torres shrunk you to size?” Kathryn asked, her authoritative tone still present, but less menacing now.

“I put it in my vocal subroutines, I figured I would need to be able to speak when I got there so you wouldn’t look there.” The Doctor replied, somewhat sheepishly.

“No I wouldn’t have looked there, because I didn’t think you would be stupid enough to mess with them.” B’Elanna quickly responded. 

“Doctor, while I’m grateful for the sentiment, and I’m sure our families are too, that was a very foolish thing to do. I’m just grateful nothing went wrong. Now lets see these photos, I’ve always wondered what my hair looks like from the back.” Kathryn moved the topic on. It had happened so long ago and she was no longer his Captain. 

“I don’t know whether it was a good idea or not, but those photographs kept me alive. Gave me hope that I might one day get to meet you.” Greskrendtregk interjected, tapping his daughter on the nose as he said the last. The rest of the families muttered their agreements and the slideshow started. 

“So I thought I would start with the photographs that the families have already seen, then go through the rest of them in order so we can tell any stories related to them.” The Doctor started. 

“This photo is the one I believe Starfleet have been using in the press prior to our return. This was taken before our little Naomi was born. You will note Kes and Neelix in this image.” The doctor moved his slide on to the next photo. It was almost identical. 

The senior staff crew fell about laughing. 

“Oh Tom! I forgot about that.” Kathryn rolled around on the floor.

“Oh it’s so much more funny now!” Harry doubled over, trying to breathe. 

When they had controlled themselves, Maura Paris was the one from the families to ask the obvious.

“Will someone care to tell me what disgusting thing my son said?” Maura assumed he had made a dirty joke to provoke that reaction from the group in the photo. B’Elanna particularly looked like she had given him a good punch on the arm. 

“Shall I fill your mother in on what you said Tom?” B’Elanna teased her blushing husband. 

“It was a momentary lapse of judgement mom, I learnt my lesson quickly.” Tom groaned with embarrassment. 

“My darling husband over here turned to me and said: ‘Why B’Elanna, I didn’t know you smiled. It really highlights your ridges.’ You can see why I hit him, he learnt his lesson pretty well. I’m surprised Tuvok didn’t pin me to the ground so I didn’t murder him. We hadn’t even had a civil conversation at that point let alone begun dating.” 

Harry, Chakotay and Kathryn exchanged glances which did not go unnoticed by B’Elanna and Tom. 

“What was that about? Come on, spit it out.” They had rounded on Harry, much more easily intimidated that either Captain Janeway or Chakotay. 

“Errrr…” Harry started. 

Chakotay saved him.

“Oh please. You two might not have realised that you were falling for each other already by that point, but the rest of us did. Wonder why you two got put on quite so many away missions together.” 

“What? Why? Me and you weren’t even friends then Chakotay? Why would you try and set me up with your friend?” Tom questioned, he’d always assumed Chakotay wouldn’t have approved of their relationship until much later in the journey when he had proven himself and their friendship improved. 

“I’m not blind Tom. The chemistry was undeniable, besides she can look after herself and I’d have dealt with what was left of you.” 

“Well we have the Captain to thank for that anyway. If she hadn’t have stepped between us when you first arrived on Voyager, I probably would have been dead anyway.” Tom chuckled. 

“From trying to kill you on site, to being the Godfather of your child. It’s been quite a ride Tom.” Chakotay chuckled back. 

Gretchen felt Maura blanch slightly at the thought of someone trying to kill her son. Gretchen was surprised to hear this too, but the rest of the crew seemed to act like this was old news. It was clearly something that had been long since worked out between them. 

They laughed at Tom being pushed into the pool and Tuvok with a birthday hat on.

“The style suits you Tuvok.” Was T’Pels comment on that one with an amused raised eyebrow from both Vulcans. 

The one which made most people stop was the photo of Naomi sleeping in the Captains chair with Kathryn and Chakotay sharing his, engrossed in a PADD. 

“Do you remember that day Naomi?” Sam asked her daughter who shook her head. 

“Well Neelix was looking after you while I was on the bridge, but we had just been through an attack by…” She looked around the rest of the room trying to find the answer to who it was which eluded her. No one seemed to remember either, so she continued. 

“By someone. And you wouldn’t settle. You didn’t want to be away from me. I told you I had to go to work but you could stay with whoever you liked. Obviously, you picked the Captain and you wouldn’t take no for an answer. So that is how you ended up on the bridge for the first time, and how you fell asleep in the Captains chair and became her assistant.” Sam smiled at her daughter. 

Kathryn loved the photo of little Naomi, but she could not keep her eyes off herself and Chakotay sat huddled together. It couldn’t have been much over a year after New Earth she thought. Did they always sit that close and look that intimate? No wonder Starfleet command thought there was something going on between them at some point in the journey if they had seen that photo. 

Kathryn caught Chakotay’s eye. He had been looking rather intently at the photograph too. They both took another long drink from the never-ending champagne glasses that were ever present in everyone’s hands, Tom was quite sneaky at filling them up. Quite a few people in the room were feeling a bit tipsy by this point, including the command team. 

The slide show continued. Everyone cheering at Naomi whenever she appeared on screen and asking her what she remembered about the different events depicted. Her birthday every year seemed to be one of the main events by which to judge how much time had passed with the photos. The photos from the early years were all of parties on the holodeck or in the mess hall. After that, the doctor seemed to take his duties as photographer up a notch, taking candid shots of the crew while they were working. 

Kathryn groaned as one particular photograph filled the screen. She buried her head in her hands as the rest of the crowd laughed and gasped at her in her Queen Arachnia costume. After a death glare from the Captain, the Doctor quickly moved on to the next slide. 

Kathryn watched the rest of the slides and could not help but notice how often she and Chakotay appeared together. Not just when on duty, but when off it. They always seemed to be rather closer than they needed to be, and often laughing or talking to each other. 

The last photographs were of the last night on Voyager. Kathryn stood on the bar addressing her crew, obviously having had a drink or two. 

“I actually have a video of your speech Captain if anyone would like to see it.” The Doctor announced.   
Kathryn groaned again loudly, everyone else laughed at her and demanded loudly to see it. 

“You weren’t that drunk Kathryn, you didn’t make a fool of yourself so don’t worry.” Chakotay had bent down to whisper in her ear. 

The feel of his breath on her neck sent shivers down her spine and she thought that she had probably had more than enough to drink for the evening. Kathryn watched with horror as she leaped on the bar and bantered easily with her crew. She was swaying a bit, and only slightly slurring her words. It could have been worse. 

Kathryn knew what was coming once she watched herself present Naomi with her uniform on the screen. Kathryn caught Naomi’s eye and winked at her signalling silently to each other. On screen, Naomi and Kathryn stuck their tongues out at Tom, and the real Kathryn and Naomi stood up and repeated the action in real life too, eliciting a large laugh from the assembled crowd. 

The video stopped and everyone settled into discussions about what they had seen, laughing at the memories brought to the surface by it. Kathryn’s face slowly receded back to its normal colour from the embarrassment of watching a video of a very drunk version of herself in front of her whole crew. Eventually, conversation drifted to what they were all going to do when debriefings finished at the end of the week when they had two months leave. Harry had asked the Captain.

“Honestly Harry, I haven’t thought past the end of this week. I assume I’ll go home to Indiana with Mom.” She turned to look at her mother who nodded that that was alright. 

“Of course, that’s what I’d assumed anyway. Besides, I’ve agreed to look after the twins for a while when Phoebe pops so you can help me with them. Chakotay, what are your plans?” Gretchen directed the question on. 

“Oh, well I haven’t thought much about it either. I’m going to stay here with Sekaya for another week before they go home as they will have been away for three weeks by then. But past that I haven’t really thought of much, look up a few old friends perhaps.” Chakotay shrugged. 

“Oh you would be more that welcome to come and stay with us! We have more than enough room for all of you. You and Sekaya can come and stay with us. It’s much more pleasant than this boring Starfleet accommodation. Stay for as long as you like.” Gretchen offered. 

Chakotay looked at Kathryn to make sure she was ok with this arrangement. She shrugged, a small smile on her face.

“If it is not too much inconvenience. I’m sure Paka would love to play with the twins more too when they are there.” Chakotay grinned, glad now at least he would find something to do on his leave. He was sure he would not be bored in a Janeway household. 

Tom and B’Elanna announced that they had rented a house short distance from the Paris family home. They were also going to visit B’Elanna’s dad at some point. The Doctor and Seven announced their plans to visit Aunt Irene for a while then head to Jupiter station with Reg Barclay to visit Dr Zimmerman. Icheb would join them to visit Aunt Irene but would then be staying with the Wildman’s before starting at the Acadamy. Harry was going to stay with his parents for a while, he looked shyly at Libby as he said it. Tuvok and T’Pel were heading to a quiet island in the pacific where a Vulcan mediation retreat had been set up for Vulcans on Earth. The rest of their family had arrived the day before and they were all heading out there for Tuvok’s treatment. The Wildman’s had no real plans besides make up for the lost years and introduce Naomi to the customs of Earth. 

Libby quietly stood up an announced that she had to leave so that she could get to her shift on time the following morning. 

“I will also retire to my quarters for regeneration.” Seven announced. The Doctor followed her out along with the Wildman’s so that Naomi could go to bed for it was nearing midnight although Naomi strongly protested her need for sleep. 

Tom and Harry showed them to the door. Tom because it was his house, and Harry so that he could say goodbye to Libby. Harry returned a few moments after Tom had returned to find the whole party looking at him as he re-entered the living room. 

“Come on then Harry. Spill. What’s happening with you and Libby?” Tom demanded of his friend.

Harry shifted uncomfortably on the spot before taking a seat on the sofa which had been vacated by the Wildman’s. He sighed. 

“Honestly, not a lot. We only moved in together a couple of months before we disappeared. We’ve both dated other people in the meantime but neither of us have found anything that has stuck. We met up earlier in the week and we hit it off like old friends. We are going to get to know each other again as friends and see what happens with no pressure for things to go back to how they were.” 

Harry squirmed more at the very public admission of his private life to his senior officers and lots of their families. He decided to redirect the questioning away from him without thinking. 

“So Chakotay, I take it things didn’t work out with Seven then if she’s off to Jupiter Station with the Doctor?” 

Kathryn had got up while Harry was talking to retrieve the bottles of champagne from the table at the side of the room with the intention of topping everyone’s drink up. At Harry’s question she froze with her back to the rest of them, and suddenly found the cork to be very interesting. 

The atmosphere in the rest of the room stiffened too. 

“Harry.” Chakotay’s quiet but powerful warning voice caught Harry in terror at the same time as B’Elanna kicked him not so subtly. 

Chakotay sighed. Resigned to the fact that this mess was his own doing. 

“I was lonely Harry. She came to me and asked me to help her learn how to date. I was flattered that she had asked me. It was a bit of an ego boost to be honest. It was never serious though, and as soon as I leant that she had a bit of a crush on me, I ended it. I didn’t want to lead her on, not when I would never go there.” Chakotay’s voice was soft and low, filled with more emotion that he ever normally let show to more than a select few people. 

Phoebe’s gaze met her mother’s then Sekaya’s from across the room. To her and Sekaya, it was clear that this admission was more than for the benefit of answering Harry’s question, it was directed and one person alone. And that person had frozen staring at a wall on the other side of the room. Chakotay’s eyes had darted to her a few times, trying to gauge her reactions. 

“So how do you think Naomi is coping with her first encounter with Earth? She seems to be getting on with her father and adapting pretty well doesn’t she?” Chakotay changed the topic when the air seemed heavy with what he had said, no one wanting to say or do anything which might upset either Chakotay or Kathryn. 

That started the conversation up again and soon they were all chatting away normally again. Kathryn had excused herself to the bathroom after the conversation about Chakotay and Seven. B’Elanna excused herself not long under the pretence of checking on Miral. She bumped into her captain as she walked down the corridor. 

“Captain. I was just coming to check on Miral, it is about to be feeding time and thought I’d use the opportunity to slip away before the rest get too drunk. Care to join me?”

“Of course I will, B’Elanna. I’ll take any opportunity to see my adorable little Goddaughter. Although, I can’t imagine she is going to let me get away with calling her adorable for long, is she?” Kathryn laughed. 

They entered the room and B’Elanna settled into a rocking chair and started feeding Miral. Kathryn perched herself against the edge of the crib. 

“Captain. Kathryn.” She corrected herself. “You might not like me admitting this, but I have known you and worked with you long enough to tell when you put your Captain’s mask on. And you are using it now. You appear calm and happy, but something is bothering you. Feel free to share, I don’t bite… well unless you’re Tom.” 

Kathryn laughed genuinely at B’Elannas joke. 

“I don’t know B’Elanna. I think I have just had a bit too much to drink and it is making me all sentimental. I’m fine, honestly.”

“And what brought this on? Harry’s questions about the big man and Seven? Because that’s my guess.”

“B’Elanna” Kathryn sighed. “Chakotay is one of the best friends I have ever had. And Seven has become like my surrogate daughter. I’d be lying if I said that relationship sat easily with me. But I’m not sure if I feel more guilty about it ending either.” 

B’Elanna shot her a questioning look. Kathryn sighed again. 

“I’m sure this is the alcohol talking, but temporal prime directive be damned. The Admiral told me something else about her future too. Chakotay and Seven married. It was one of the things she used to get me to go along with her plan, that and Tuvoks illness amongst other deaths and things. I feel like they didn’t give it enough chance and now I’ve ruined that chance of happiness for them.” 

B’Elanna regarded her captain closely. 

“Can I give you another opinion you might not like?” B’Elanna asked quietly.

“When have you ever held that back B’Elanna, it’s one of the things I like most about you, don’t stop now on the account of a slightly drunk and disorientated captain in your daughter’s room.”

“Well, you have no idea if she was telling the truth.”

“But she was me B’Elanna.” Kathryn interjected. 

“Exactly. She was a future you where she was clearly very unhappy with how everything had turned out. She told you about Tuvok’s illness. That was true and provably so. It made you trust what she said. She told you Chakotay and Seven married. You thought she proved it to you when you checked the logs and saw that they were probably dating. But you have no proof that it actually went past that. Chakotay marrying Seven, Seven’s death, the death of other crewmembers. Honestly, those are the things that she said which were designed to manipulate you into doing what she wanted. She fed you provable facts mixed in with manipulations to make you do what she wanted. Besides, do you really think that the spiritual Chakotay would have been compatible with the cold and calculated Seven?” B’Elanna finished her spiel as she finished feeding Miral. She handed the child to Kathryn who instinctively and absentmindedly held her arms out to accept her. 

“Am I really that bad?” Kathryn asked after a few minutes of contemplation of B’Elannas words as she cradled Miral who started to drift back off to sleep.

“No. But don’t tell me that you aren’t ruthless when you decide what you want, because that is what let us survive out there.” 

Kathryn huffed a small laugh and passed Miral back to B’Elanna to tuck into her crib for the night.

“Thanks. I needed this.” Kathryn replied as they left the room back down the corridor. 

“Anytime you need an angry Klingon’s opinion, you know where to come.” B’Elanna smiled at her captain, feeling closer to friends at that moment. 

When they arrived back into the living room to re-join everyone, Kathryn felt much better than she had when she left. She’d finally managed to identify the strong ache in her stomach whenever she thought of Chakotay and Seven. It was jealousy. But also mixed in with guilt that she felt she had stopped them from being together. B’Elanna had helped ease the guilt aspect. Chakotay’s words had reassured her too. He did not want them to be together and was not heart broken by Seven. His words, though a repetition of the sentiment from a conversation they had had privately aboard voyager, were said in front of their friends and families. The knowledge and admission that it was a moment of weakness made her heart sing far more than she cared to admit. 

Kathryn was glad that the conversation was considerably lighter than when they had left. They were talking about Naomi and all of the funny stories they could remember about her while she was growing up on voyager. Yet more champagne was drunk and funny stories told. Eventually, the guests left for their own houses. They were all rather on the jolly end of drunk with the exception of B’Elanna and Phoebe who hadn’t drunk at all and Tuvok and T’Pel for whom alcohol did not have the same affect. Gretchen, Maura, Sekaya and James had had a couple of glasses but were no where near as jolly as the remaining Voyager crew, having not had any real quantities of alcohol for more than seven years, were enjoying this new found freedom of not having to be sober for a red alert. The senior staff and their families departed. Sekaya, James, Phoebe and Gretchen left having scooped up their sleeping charges. Sekaya went home with Phoebe who had offered to put them up for the night to ensure Chakotay did not get woken by Paka who had decided that Chakotay needed a very early alarm clock.   
Kathryn and Chakotay stumbled through the complex of houses from Tom and B’Elanna’s to the other side where theirs were located. Kathryn had taken Chakotay’s arm and they were giggling like children. 

“I feel like a teenager trying to sneak back home after a night out!” Chakotay laughed, he thought he was whispering, but it carried rather a long way in the silence of the night. 

“Shhhhhh!” Kathryn giggled back. “We are Starfleet officers and we are trying to sneak back to our quarters and not wake the crewmen. What have our lives become Chakotay?!”

“A lot more fun. I’ve only seen you drunk twice, and both of those have been in the last week. I think the alpha quadrant is a bad influence on you!”

“I do recall that I started drinking with you both times, so I reason that it is you that is the bad influence on me! Besides, I’m no where near as drunk as I was the last night on Voyager.”

“You’re not? Well I suppose you haven’t got up on any bars tonight so that is evidence in your favour I suppose.” Chakotay laughed as they approached their houses. 

“Do you want to come in? I have a lovely coffee blend I’m sure you would love. Real stuff, not replicated.” Chakotay asked. 

“Oh you do know how to get a woman excited don’t you.” Kathryn teased back. “Yes please. It might sober me up a bit so the hangover goes before our 3 pm senior staff debriefing. Oh, I do wish I’d have asked the doctor for a hypospray before he left.” 

“I’ve got a few if we need it in the morning. I figured we might find the odd crewman who needed quick discrete hangover relief at some point before a debriefing. Didn’t dream it would be us though honestly.” Chakotay laughed as they pushed through his front door together and collapsed on his sofa next to each other. 

“I did enjoy the evening, but I am far to old to have sat on that beanbag all evening.” Kathryn lamented rubbing her back. 

“You aren’t old Kathryn, it would have hurt anyone’s back. Why didn’t you take up my offer of the place on the sofa next to Harry when Sam left? We could have shared the aching back together.”

“It didn’t feel that bad at the time, maybe it was the alcohol numbing the affects. I’m regretting it now. I should have made Harry sit on the floor instead. He’s young, he could have coped.”

“Yeah, I should have made him sit on the floor for asking awkward questions too.” Chakotay muttered under his breath as he turned Kathryn gently so that she was facing away from him on the sofa. 

Kathryn chuckled non-committally at Chakotay’s comment.

Chakotay pulled on the little cardigan Kathryn was wearing and she helped him to shrug it off to the floor. He started massaging Kathryn’s back almost absentmindedly. She stiffened at his touch, then relaxed into it. The tension in the room was almost too much to bear for Kathryn, so she broke it by speaking, glad Chakotay couldn’t see her face to see the way his touch affected her. 

“I didn’t just complain about my back to convince you to give me a message Chakotay.” She forced out in a laugh. 

“I know you didn’t, but I know how tight your muscles can get. I just wanted to make you feel better. I can stop if you like.” 

“I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it.” Chakotay massaged Kathryn’s back in silence for a while longer, both of them thinking of the last time that they were in a very similar situation on New Earth. 

“How do you think the tomatoes are doing?” Chakotay asked. 

Kathryn knew exactly what he was referring too without asking. 

“I’m sure our little primate friend has moved into our house and had been tending the tomatoes in our absence.” Kathryn chuckled back. “I’ve been thinking about going to mom’s in Indiana, and I can’t wait to do some gardening for her. I thought this trip would change me, but that was not an outcome I would have anticipated.” Kathryn laughed again, turning and stopping Chakotay’s hands on her back and neck. 

They were close together now. Kathryn could almost feel his slow and steady breaths on her face. 

“They asked me about New Earth again. They asked me how I felt about the whole thing, how I felt when Voyager contacted us with the news of the cure.” Kathryn said. 

“They asked me that too. What did you say?” Chakotay replied. They were speaking in hushed tones now, having been sobered up slightly by the walk, the coffee and the intensity of the conversation. 

“It would have been nicer if we had known we would be rescued within a few weeks. We could have enjoyed it more, treated it as a holiday.” Kathryn said. 

“Me to. It was the thing that made us good friends too. I think back of our time their fondly, but don’t regret leaving the calm serene world we created for ourselves and coming back to the chaotic nature of Voyager.” 

“Me neither, but there were times when things went wrong that I wished we had stayed on that stupid planet.” Kathryn laughed. “But you are right, it bought us our friendship and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.” 

They were both quiet for another moment, quiet in their own thoughts. The intensity of their faces being so close had dissipated, they had both lent back against the sofa, but they were still so close that their shoulders touched comfortably. 

“Did you know Tom had a betting pool going while we were there about whether we would have killed each other or.. err… you know…” 

Kathryn laughed at him, turning her head to face him once more.

“And where did they find the time to do that? I thought they were fighting off Vidiians? Trust Tom.” 

“I wonder if it ever paid out either way? Or if there is still a pool of replicator rations going somewhere that I could claim?” Chakotay teased. 

“If we’d have known on the ship, we could have rigged it to get the rations. I could have had enough coffee to keep me going at the end of every month!” Kathryn joked back, their faces pulling ever close together. 

“Hmmm… which way would it have been though. I’m sure we could have convinced them we hated each other. Might have made the bridge awkward.” He laughed.

“Because the alternative wouldn’t have made the bridge awkward either.” She laughed back. 

“I don’t know about that, I think they would have been happy for us. Harry might have been a little awkward, but the rest of them would have teased us until we locked them in the brig.” 

Kathryn laughed then yawned. 

“It’s late, sorry to have kept you up.” 

“No, it’s ok Chakotay. I’m enjoying my evening. Let’s just lie down here, I’ll leave in a little while.”

Together, they manoeuvred themselves round so that they were stretched out side by side on the sofa with their heads resting on the arm rest. Kathryn turned her face towards him as they laid down and was shocked to find how close his face was to hers again. This time, they were pressed so close together she really could feel every breath, every rise and fall of his chest. They locked eyes and Kathryn noticed the intensity of the look they shared. She did not know who it was who reacted, but she found her lips were welcoming the embrace of his. It was a soft and tender kiss, full of emotion and reverence. They broke apart and looked almost shocked at each other for a moment. Kathryn’s fuzzy brain commanded some thought and she realised that she had enjoyed that. Chakotay’s face softened at almost the same time and she leaned in for another kiss. 

This kiss was more intense than the first, they explored each other’s mouths, but it maintained the same slow and romantic qualities as the first. This time when they broke apart, Kathryn sighed and rested her head against his chest. Neither of them said anything, for neither wanted to ruin the moment or question the motives. They were curled up together on the sofa, her head on his chest. Chakotay pulled the blanket over them from the back of the sofa and wrapped his arms around her. It was in this position, blissful in each other’s proximity, that they fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Phoebe and Sekaya had risen early with their children and were at the voyager accommodation before they had intended to be. They were going to have brunch their respective siblings before going to a girls afternoon with Louise Ayala. 

“No Katie. We will only go and see Aunty Kathryn if she is awake. I’m not waking her up today.” Phoebe explained to her daughter for what felt like the hundredth time.

“See, no lights or windows open at Aunty Kathryn’s house. Oh, but Chakotay’s bathroom light is on and bedroom window is open. Shall we go and let you terrors loose on him instead?” Phoebe asked the three children surrounding her and Sekaya.

Sekaya input the code and shouted hello as she opened the door to let the hurricane that is three excitable toddlers into Chakotay’s house. Sekaya and Phoebe lingered by the door to take their coats off. Their heads snapped up as they heard the shouts from the main room. 

“Aunty Kathryn!” 

“Uncle Chakotay!” 

Phoebe and Sekaya ran to grab their charges as quickly as they could, Phoebe was surprised her sister was here, but glad. She immediately assumed that she had stayed over and was rather hoping they had at least had time to get dressed before their niece and nephew descended on their peace. 

Phoebe could not stifle the laugh at the sight she saw as she entered the scene. Kathryn was still in the clothes she wore the night before, but at least she was in them thought Phoebe. It was clear they had not heard their entrance and had probably still been asleep when the children had jumped on them. Kathryn had managed to sit herself up on the sofa and swing her legs round, but she has both Katie and Kian on her lap. Chakotay had been trapped against the back of the sofa by Kathryn’s body, so was awkwardly trying to detangle himself from the blanket and was half sat up still lengthways as Paka clambered up his body towards his head. 

“Good morning Chakotay. Kathryn. Did not realise you would be here, sorry to set the terrors on you.” Sekaya greeted trying not to laugh at their predicament and make it awkward. 

“Ah, yes. Good morning Sekaya. We err.. we thought we’d have a quick catch up prior to the meeting this afternoon. I was just on my way out actually…” Kathryn flushed, awkward that they had been caught together in such a way by their sisters. They’d only kissed and fallen asleep, but Kathryn realised that it probably looked way worse than that anyway. 

Kathryn extracted herself from the limpets and excused herself, looking for anything of hers that she needed to take back with her. 

“Looking for this?” Phoebe bent and picked up a rather screwed up cardigan from where it had landed on the floor when she had slipped out of it the night before. 

Kathryn turned an even brighter shade of red and walked out of the room. As she passed Phoebe, she whispered just to her sister.

“Just don’t Phoebe. Don’t.” 

Phoebe laughed again at the sight before her as Kathryn went home. 

“Help yourself to drinks and food. I’m going to quickly err… get ready for the day.” He wandered back into the hall and up the stairs to have a shower and change into some clothes that he had not spent the night in.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Senior staff get together for a debriefing and someone unexpected turns up.

Kathryn arrived for the afternoon senior staff group debriefings. It was the start of the second week, and they had all been called in with some Admirals to discuss how they were going so far. Kathryn was slightly anxious; she had a feeling they had decided about whether any of their prime directive breakings should result in penalties. She was also anxious because she had not managed to speak to Chakotay since they had been unceremoniously woken up that morning in his living room. She had intended to go and find him during the day, to say what exactly, she was not sure. But too many things had cropped up, and she had not got the chance so now she was going to have to deal with the awkwardness in a public way with the people who can probably read them best as well as a load of admirals. Kathryn sighed and wondered just how she ended up in these situations. 

As she entered the room Tom and B’Elanna greeted her warmly. 

“Good afternoon! Who’s on babysitting duty today?” She asked. 

“Maura is looking after her and I believe your mother is going to join her to go shopping for clothes for Miral and Phoebe’s little one when he makes his appearance.” B’Elanna replied with a warm smile. 

The rest of the senior staff team arrived at the same time. Chakotay and Kathryn made eye contact and gave a half nod/smirk/smile in acknowledgement of each other instead of a full greeting as he took his customary place to her left. Admiral Hayes lead the party in from Starfleet just as they arrived, so no further greeting was possible. 

The meeting started and Kathryn turned off her personal issues and became the Captain once again, working seamlessly with her First Officer and the other senior staff members to answer the questions the admirals put to them. 

“Well that concludes the follow up questions we had for you as a group. Thank you. So I thought we would give you an update on how the debriefings are going on the whole.” Admiral Hayes concluded after a seemingly endless discussion about how they blended the crews and all of the little things they did. 

“As you have all been told separately, Captain Janeway kindly submitted a list of offences which took place while you were away.” Kathryn wanted to shrink into her seat for all the eyes of her team around her felt like they were boring into her skin. But Captain Janeway sat up straighter. 

“And while we appreciate the thought, there will be no charges brought to anyone who returned on Voyager. All of your logs and accounts match perfectly, and you all sufficiently defended each other’s logic as well as admitted where faults were made and how you made up for them. We may have some further questions for you about these incidents however, but no one will be brought to trial for them. However, with regards to the former Equinox crew, we can not ignore their actions. The action which would be taken against them would probably be dishonourable discharge, however having spoken to them, each of them has indicated their desire to leave Starfleet anyway. Therefore, no action will be taken against them either. Considering what happened between your crews, I was personally very shocked with the praise that they held for you. I wouldn’t have expected them to hold you in such high regard, particularly crewman Lessing, but he was full of praise particularly for the Captain and Commander.” 

Kathryn cringed inwardly at the incident. It was not a moment she was proud of, and not one she had ever been able to justify. She had apologised to Noah once he was part of the crew and tried to make amends where she could. Someone must have done a good job justifying that on her behalf, because she was sure her logs would not. 

“Tomorrow, all the crew will be pull in separately and given offers of any promotions or jobs Starfleet deems them worthy of. We have reviewed the extensive list Captain Janeway sent us. But I’m sorry, but I can’t put someone up too ranks in one go! I’ll put them on the fast track to go up again, but Ensign to Lieutenant Commander is just too big of a jump.”

“Sorry Admiral, it is where I believe that individual should be and it was worth a try.” Kathryn replied, her eyes finding Harry to her right who blushed a deep crimson but beamed with pride. 

“Almost all of you will be offered positions here at head quarters in the first instance. We need the people who are familiar with Voyager to show our engineers and scientists the advancements you have made. And quite frankly, we had a few engineers go in to look at it and move her to a proper port, but they couldn’t even get the warp core to start. I think you might have to fly it out for us on your first day leave.” Admiral Hayes laughed with the rest of them at the thought of their quirky Voyager not being able to be flown by anyone else.

“She can be a bit temperamental with starting the warp core, you have to get her in the right mood first. That’s what you get for putting a half-Klingon in charge of the engines though.” B’Elanna laughed and shrugged to make her point. 

Admiral Hayes moved on. 

“At the end of this weeks debriefings we will hold the formal welcome home ball and promotions ceremony with full Starfleet brass and press releases and the likes. You know the drill. I will be speaking with you all tomorrow. Dismissed.” 

The senior staff team wandered through the now familiar again halls of Starfleet HQ on their way to the exit which led to their housing. Tom and Harry were first through the doors, laughing as they all were that they could not even start up the warp engine on Voyager. Tom and Harry did not notice the slightly out of place man stood at the foot of the stairs they were descending. Kathryn Janeway did though. She was talking to both B’Elanna and Chakotay about them all working together again on Project Voyager as they were calling it. 

“You’ll have a lot to teach them B’Elanna, it makes me even more glad we had you out there if they can’t even start the warp engine, how on Earth would they have done the…” Captain Janeway paused as she heard a voice she had not heard in seven years shout a name she had not used in just as long.

“Kath!” Mark was shouting at her as he bounded up the steps to meet her and a stunned rest of the crew. Though only Chakotay and Tom knew exactly who this was right away, the others figured it out pretty quickly. They continued their decent down the stairs but stopped a respectable distance down the path so that they could not hear the conversation but could see their Captain in what was sure to be an awkward conversation. 

Mark hugged Kathryn in a big bear hug that nearly lifted her off the ground. 

“Mark.” Kathryn said again in surprise. “Hi.”

“You didn’t return my call Kath. I had to come and see with my own eyes that you were alright.” He had moved them apart but kept his hands on her arms. He moved to swipe away a piece of stray hair from her face and she flinched away from him. He let her go dejectedly. 

“Sorry Mark. You called before I even arrived on Earth. I’ve been in debriefings since then. I was going to call you when we get some leave.”

“No I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I just needed to see that you were alright and say I’m sorry in person. I really am sorry that I gave up on you. I’m sorry I believed you were dead, I really am. I’m sorry I betrayed you and married someone else. I just hope that you are happy too Kath.”

“Mark stop. I was as good as dead. Don’t feel guilty. Please Mark. I’m glad you found happiness. I really am.” Kathryn pleaded with him. She shot a look to the people who had known her best for the last seven years, glad they had waited for her. “I am honestly busy Mark. Go home to Carla, go home to your wife and children Mark. I’ll come and visit you when I have leave.”

“Oh God, I always wondered what she saw in him.” Tom mumbled as soon as they were out of ear shot. 

“Oh, is that Mark?” Harry asked, clicking on later than the rest that it was her former fiancé. It was common knowledge on the ship that she had been engaged and had received a Dear John letter from him in their transmissions through the Hirogen network. 

“Yup, I always found him rather dull and a bit of a wet blanket really. Every wish was her command. Hope his wife and kids can’t walk all over him like Kathryn did with him.” Tom followed up. 

“He’s married?” B’Elanna asked.

“Yeah, by the time we got the word home we were alive he was married with a child on the way.” Tom contributed. 

“Tom, that’s hardly fair on the man. She was dead for all he knew. It must be daunting for him now that she is back on Earth. It must be a difficult situation to be in.” 

“Look at her, she clearly doesn’t want to be having this conversation with him either. Tuvok did you meet him? What was your assessment.” Tom shot back, knowing Chakotay was trying very hard to be reasonable, he hoped Tuvok would use logic to help the cause. 

“I did meet him once or twice. I have to say that I found him rather quiet. When I did manage to talk to him, I found that I also concluded that the Captain’s relationship with Mark was illogical, but I am by no means an expert on human mating partners.” 

They all looked as Kathryn’s eyes demonstrated the quick glance that was the plea for help. It was subtle, and only used a handful of times aboard Voyager when Kathryn wanted saving from some overly friendly alien, or Neelix and the Doctor when they got started and she could not escape politely.

“Chakotay, that was a clear cry for help. Get your arse over there and save her.” Tom chided.

“Since when does Captain Janeway need saving?”

“Since Mark showed up.”

“And why me?”

“Quit stalling and go help her because I had lunch with my brother today who, in case you had forgotten, happens to be married to a certain Captain’s sister so go!” Tom responded, earning questioning looks from the rest of the senior staff except B’Elanna and a look from Chakotay which said tell anyone else that and you die. 

Kathryn was feeling like she was floundering deeply with trying to calm Mark down and get him to go home. The relief she felt when Chakotay approached them was palpable. 

“Kathryn, we were heading to that social with the Admiral if you were still going to join us?” Chakotay asked. They were going to pop by Tom and B’Elannas with them to see Miral. Since Admiral Owen Paris was babysitting, it was not technically a lie. 

“Oh yes of course. Mark, meet my First Officer Chakotay. Chakotay meet Mark.” The two men shook hands amicably. 

“I think Mark was going to head home now anyway weren’t you?” Kathryn continued. 

“Err yes. I should go Kath. Promise me you will come and visit.” 

“I would like to get myself and my life settled first Mark, but I will as soon as I have the time.” Kathryn replied diplomatically, feeling much more reassured now she had an out as well as due to Chakotay’s presence. 

Mark wandered off in the other direction to that which the rest of the senior staff had slowly ambled once Chakotay had joined them. 

“So that was Mark.” Chakotay started, unsure if she wanted to talk about her ex-fiancé. They had not even talked one-on-one since the night before where they had kissed and fallen asleep together. To Chakotay’s immense relief, Kathryn laughed. 

“Yup, that was Mark. Why is my life just always so strange?”

“How did that go? Not great from the rescue me glance we got.” They were ambling slowly towards their complex behind the rest of the team. 

“Err no. I think he is a bit confused now I am back. I think he still feels guilty and doesn’t quite know how to deal with it. Mom told me he wanted to show up when we landed, I’m glad she talked him out of that. I just feel sorrier for his wife. Imagine you marry someone, and their ex shows up from the dead, is on every TV channel in the federation and her husband is desperate to see her. Poor woman, I hope she and their kids are alright.”

“I’m sure they will be, it must just be a bit overwhelming for him at the moment.”

“Honestly that just was for me too. I haven’t even thought about Mark for years, and I really don’t grudge him moving on at all. But I just hadn’t prepared myself for that you know, like what do you say to someone like that? Especially when they were being as unreasonable as he was at that moment.”

“Well I’ve seemed to hear all the versions of your name now too. I call you Kathryn, your family calls you Katie and Mark calls you Kath.”

“Oh don’t. Q called me Kathy ergh. I can cope with almost anything but Kathy and Kat.” Kathryn shuddered dramatically for effect.

Chakotay laughed, glad they were back to laughing terms. 

“So why does everyone call you something different? And why did you ask me to call you Kathryn? I’ve noticed no one else seems to.”

“My family have started calling me Aunty Kathryn sometimes, it distinguishes me from little Katie. Honestly, my dad always called me Katie so anyone I knew through him calls me that like the Parises. I met Justin with Owen when he rescued us, so he called me Katie too. When he and my father died, I couldn’t stand to be called Katie, so Mark called me Kath which is what I was known as at school. When we got stranded in the Delta Quadrant, I thought my name might be permanently Captain but then I got to know you. I was feeling crappy about losing Mark so spontaneously decided to use Kathryn. I’ve never really used it before but decided I quite liked the way you said it. You make it sound like Captain, but subtly different and it pleased me greatly on New Earth. Now I like it the best, but don’t mind what anyone calls me.” Kathryn shrugged. 

“As long as it’s not Kathy?”

“Anything but Kathy. Exactly.” Kathryn laughed as they reached the door of Tom and B’Elanna’s house so they could spend a few minutes spoiling their Goddaughter rotten. 

The remaining week passed in a whirlwind for Kathryn. She was offered the choice of command of another ship, or a position on the admiralty. She had been hesitant to make the decision there and then on the spot. She knew that right now, she wanted to stay put for the time being, but she had two months leave then another couple of months of Project Voyager. Maybe that would be enough of a fill for her. She had always felt the pull of space and exploration. Would half a year with her feet on ground get her itching to get back off it? She only pondered the decision for a few hours until Phoebe went into labour. Kathryn helped her mother with the twins and went to visit her newest nephew when he was born. Little Luke was so precious, and Kathryn made up her mind right there and then. She was not going to be the aunty who swanned in occasionally from some far away place and swanned out again, she wanted to be here for her nieces and nephews, her Goddaughter and all of her family. She accepted the position on the admiralty, she could always give herself the odd assignments on a ship if she felt the need to get away again. 

Between making decisions about her life, helping her mother with the twins and visiting Phoebe, on top of full days of debriefings, Kathryn had barely had time to stop before the day of the promotion ceremony and ball was upon them. Gretchen had insisted that they go together to have a pamper afternoon and have their hair done for the ball.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promotion ceremony and ball.

Kathryn looked at herself in the newly replicated dress uniform. The ceremony was in uniform, but the ball was not. That dress hung on the hook next to the mirror in her hotel room for the quick-change act she would have to perform later. She took a deep breath and wandered down from her room into the main lobby where she would be meeting with Admiral Hayes prior to the event. 

The auditorium filled with Voyager crew at the front, families in the middle, and some journalists and Starfleet media at the back. Kathryn followed Admirals Hayes and Paris out onto the stage to loud clapping and a wolf-whistle which, though she could not see who had done it, she would have put all her coffee replicator rations on it being Tom Paris. 

Admiral Hayes gave a rousing speech about the honouring the dedication and the suffering of those aboard voyager. They started with the honours. Admiral Hayes was calling each member up to the front, shaking their hand, and handing them over to their Captain who had insisted that she wanted to be the one who presented the awards to her crew. 

The most difficult bit was first, Kathryn knew and was bracing herself for it. As Hayes called out all of the names and honours of those who did not make it home, it was all Kathryn could do but to hold it together as their family members came to collect the honours for their fallen relatives. 

Kathryn just about kept it together, a few small tears had fallen, but she was not outright bawling as she feared she might have. 

Then they started giving awards and honours to those present. Starting with the lowest ranking among them. Even those that were not being promoted, or even those that were leaving Starfleet still had awards to be awarded. They all had a medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. Tom had called it the ‘how the hell are you alive you lucky bastards award’, much to the crews’ amusement. Many of them also had other awards for specific incidences of bravery. The one award which Kathryn was giving people that she was not proud to be giving them was the purple heart. The purple heart was given to any crew member who was severely wounded. There were very few crewmembers who did not have at least a couple of these. It was not uncommon for Starfleet personnel to rack up a couple of these over their careers if they were high in the chain of command. Kathryn herself had two before boarding Voyager, but the sheer number which they were awarding was staggering. Kathryn had always appreciated the miracles the doctor had worked to save them, but now she felt even more so realising how many more times her crew members could have died. 

“Ensign Harry Kim. Promotion to Lieutenant. He will be joining our deep space command team. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. Seven medals for outstanding bravery. Eight purple hearts.” Admiral Hayes announced as Harry entered the stage. They were getting to the senior staff now, and the awards were getting higher as well as the number of purple hearts. 

Captain Janeway presented the medals to Harry Kim and fastened the new pip to his collar. 

“Sorry it’s only one rank up Harry, I’ll keep working on them” She whispered in his ear as Harry beamed at her. “And at ease Lieutenant, before you strain something.” They both tried to contain their laugh at the reference to their first meeting aboard Voyager all those years ago. 

“Ambassador Neelix.” Neelix’s face filled the wall behind the stage in a live stream. “Maintaining his position as Ambassador to the Delta Quadrant for the federation. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. One diplomatic excellence award. Two medals for outstanding bravery. Three purple hearts.”

“Well done Neelix. I’m sorry we can’t get to you to award you these medals in person. I will be keeping them on your behalf until we have the technology to reach you again.” Kathryn spoke to Neelix and to the audience.

“Thank you, Captain. Brax has made me a medal and I shall wear this with pride.” The talaxian giggled and held his medal up to the camera before the link was cut and they moved on. 

“Lieutenant Thomas Paris. Joining our elite flight tactics team. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. Seven medals for outstanding bravery. Four purple hearts.” 

Kathryn presented her bother-in-law with his medals. They had discussed his non-promotion. The demotion and disobeying orders meant that lieutenant was probably as far as he would ever be able to go. Tom was not bothered, for in his eyes he had scored himself his dream job of developing flight tactics and test piloting new ships and shuttles. 

“Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres. Promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Joining the experimental engineering team at headquarters. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. One Cochrane medal for outstanding engineering achievement. Eight medals for outstanding bravery. Nine purple hearts.” Hayes announced once more. 

Kathryn pinned the new pip to her collar and handed her medals. 

“I tried to get them to make a ‘gave birth in a borg tanswawrp conduit’ award but they wouldn’t budge.”

B’Elanna snorted. “Nice try, thanks.” 

“Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. Seven medals for outstanding bravery. Six purple hearts.”

Kathryn proudly presented her friend with his medals. She knew he had been offered a promotion but had turned it down in favour of taking a sabbatical and spending time with his wife and family to heal. 

“Commander Chakotay. Promotion to Captain. Joining teaching staff at the academy. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. One Jones award for leadership. Nine medals for outstanding bravery. Nine purple hearts.” Hayes announced. 

Kathryn reached up on her tiptoes as she had done for a few of the others to secure Chakotay’s new pip in place. She reverently put the medals on him and they smiled slightly to one another, without saying a word. Kathryn had known he had been offered Captain, but not whether he’d taken it. And to hear that he would be based at the academy teaching meant that they would both be staying on Earth at least for a while. The thought warmed Kathryn. 

“We have one final person to celebrate tonight. Captain Kathryn Janeway.” 

Kathryn knew this part was coming, but she had not really prepared herself for it. She had been more concerned with awarding the medals to her crew than receiving them herself. She had not told anyone but her mother what she had decided to do with her life, which is why there were a few bated breathes as they waited for it to be announced. She had not even told anyone she had been offered Admiral. 

“Promotion to Vice-Admiral responsible for technological advances and Delta Quadrant studies. One medal for achievement under extraordinary circumstances. One Christopher Pike medal of valour. One Jones award for leadership. Fourteen medals for outstanding bravery. Twenty-three purple hearts.” 

There had been a pleasant muttering as it was announced she was promoted, but people had actively gasped when the number of purple hearts was read out. Kathryn cringed. She guessed hers would be higher than anyone else, but it was rather more than she would have guessed. 

Admiral Hayes presented her with her new rank and pinned the medals to her chest. He presented the twenty-three purple hearts to her in an ornate box, she would need somewhere to store them, they would never fit on her uniform without looking ridiculous and falling over. 

Kathryn turned to the crowd to see that the whole room were giving her a standing ovation, crew families, Starfleet Brass, press, everyone. Kathryn thanked the admiral once again, smiled at the audience, and headed off the stage by the side door. She breathed a sigh of relief that it was over, never one for much liking the formalities, she preferred giving the accolades to receiving them. 

Kathryn only had a few moments to herself before the rest of her crew joined her in the lobby. They were to have a quick press shoot which Kathryn had almost forgotten about in the chaos of the week. Kathryn felt like she and her crew had posed together in almost every confirmation possible, and being the Captain, she had been required in nearly all of them. Her only comfort through the whole thing was that she was sure at least Chakotay and B’Elanna were enjoying it even less than she was, muttering every time they changed positions. 

Eventually they were deemed to have posed and smiled enough in their dress uniforms with their new medals. Kathryn was now revelling in the few minutes she had in her room at the hotel where this whole thing was being held to change. She carefully let her hair out of its tight bun which she had reinstated as her hair had grown back out, and just pinned the top layer back elegantly as the hairdresser had that afternoon. She slipped out of her uniform and folded it neatly on the chest of draws and turned to put the beautiful gown her mother and sister had insisted she buy for the occasion. Kathryn had not thought much about what she would wear for the ball, she had not cared really. But they had insisted she had to look wonderful and had forced her to go shopping late one night. 

She admired herself in the mirror, the midnight blue dress hung elegantly around her body, hugging her hips and waist and flowing down her legs to the floor. The neckline plunged into a modest v, and the back was almost non-existent. Kathryn had not been quite sure about it, but her mother insisted it would stay up if she danced and would be fine. Kathryn checked the time and headed back down the stairs from her moment of peace to the ball. 

Kathryn began the ball doing what she always did. She spoke to people. She spoke to nearly everyone there, caught up with crew members she had not seen until she presented them with their awards, old Starfleet acquaintances, family members of her crew. Everyone was milling around, talking, eating canapes and drinking champagne. 

Eventually Kathryn found her way back to the table where the Janeways and Paris’s sat, mainly for Phoebe’s benefit. She had brought the four-day old Luke with her, but not the twins. Luke and Miral sat side by side in carry seats, carefully guarded by Maura and Gretchen. Tom and B’Elanna had gone to mingle with the rest of the attendees. The music changed, and the portion of the evening which was reserved for the dancing section of the ball began. 

“Excuse me, but I do believe it is traditional for Admirals to dance with any new ones is it not?”   
Kathryn laughed at Owen.

“I know we were gone a while, but I don’t recall that ever being a thing. But if you would like to dance Owen, I would be honoured.” Kathryn graciously bowed and offered her arm jokingly to him. 

“Your father would be proud of you Katie.” 

“Thanks Owen.” Kathryn smiled and shrugged, unsure what to say.

They moved onto the dancefloor and began to dance; people were milling around. No one wanted to be the first to start dancing, but Kathryn was always happy to start things off. Two admirals dancing would certainly allow people to feel like they could too. Soon people were swirling their way across the dancefloor, some rather more elegantly than others. 

After dancing and talking with Owen for a few minutes, they almost crashed into another couple.   
“Ah, hello. Kathryn, would you mind if we swapped partners? I wondered where my husband had gotten to.”

Kathryn smiled at the elder woman and willingly handed her husband off to her. She turned to see who she would now be dancing with to find a slightly bashful smiling Chakotay.

“Congratulations Captain” 

“Congratulations Admiral” 

They greeted each other as they moved into position and began dancing, the same respectable distance apart Kathryn and Owen had kept. 

“Well, I can’t have us being the same rank now can I?” Kathryn teased. 

“Good to know you’ll always be able to boss me around.” Chakotay teased back. “But honestly I’m surprised. A position on Earth? I’d have thought even with seven years in the Delta Quadrant, you would still feel that need to explore and be amongst the stars?” 

“Nope, not just yet anyway. I would quite like to be around for a while to get to know my family. I didn’t realise just how lonely we were out there until we got back and I saw what I had missed. I want to be part of my niece and nephews’ lives, not just be the mad Aunt who waltzes through occasionally on her way to some other part of space. I’m not saying no to missions forever though.” Kathryn answered. “And what about you? You’re staying here too? I thought you might go out again too, or at least go with Sekaya?”

“Sekaya travels all the time anyway and seems to end up here a lot to visit your sister. I think I’ll still get to see a lot of her and Paka. At least we’ll always be in comm range. Other than that, my reasons for staying are basically the same as yours, except my family is our crew. Most of them are staying here for a while, and I always have enjoyed teaching. It will be good to keep those people around that mean something to me for once in my life. And I’m glad my best friend will be staying around too of course.” 

Chakotay’s brown eyes never left Kathryns blue ones. Kathryn sighed, and they settled into each other’s grips, subconsciously moving closer and relaxing into each other. 

“Me too.”

They danced happily for a while, slowly drawing together. Chakotay had moved his hand from her shoulder to her back at some point and was absently caressing the naked skin he found there. 

“The final debriefing this morning was asking about our relationship again. I thought they’d have dropped it by now.” Kathryn stated after a while.

“They did the same to me, I think they were trying to catch us off guard. They got the councillor in who met us on Voyager, she’s a betazoid. I think they really didn’t believe anyone could be so close to the beautiful Kathryn Janeway for 7 years and nothing happen. Especially when we were on New Earth. I couldn’t get them to stop talking about it until the councillor told them to stop pressuring me about it and move on. I was very careful to always state that nothing happened in the Delta Quadrant.”

“I had a very similar experience, and I also emphasised my statements were about while we were in the Delta Quadrant. They did not seem to think two adults could be as close as we are and not have acted on any impulses.” Kathryn sighed.

Chakotay rose one eyebrow and the dimples appeared in his cheeks as he asked “You had impulses about me Kathryn?”

Kathryn blushed a deep crimson. 

“I don’t think I’m going to answer that.” She replied coyly.

Chakotay pulled her in closer to him so her head rested on his chest. They danced together contentedly for a long time, impervious to the looks that were being shot their way from everyone. Some of shock at this public display of closeness, and some of utter joy and happiness for them. 

“Alright, how did you do it?” B’Elanna whispered. 

“Do what?” Gretchen and Maura replied simultaneously. 

B’Elanna laughed. 

“Alright, now I know you had something to do with it. And don’t pretend you don’t know what we’re talking about.” 

“Oh, well they just needed a bit of a push, that’s all. How did you know it was us?” Maura replied.

“Because you are related to Tom. Well done for getting them to dance together, I must confess that me and Tom had a very similar plan.” She laughed with her mother-in-law and Gretchen. 

“They’ll stop dancing in a bit, then you can enact your plan and get them back together again. I do just wish they would stop tiptoeing round each other and admit how they feel.” Gretchen replied. 

B’Elanna snorted. Gretchen gave her a questioning look.

“Errr, not sure if I should tell you this, but after the evening at ours, Phoebe and Sekaya found them both in the clothes they were wearing the night before asleep in his living room. They might be..” B’Elanna was cut off. 

“I wouldn’t say anymore B’Elanna, she’s an Admiral now and I’m sure she could find a brig to throw you in.” 

Chakotay had approached the table and stood behind them without them noticing. The three women jumped and blushed deeply at having been caught out, and then even deeper as they realised Kathryn was also stood there. Kathryn and Chakotay were laughing though so the women relaxed that they had not actually offended them too much. 

Kathryn went to say something but before she could, the Doctor arrived to ask her for a dance. This was the pattern for most of the evening. Kathryn would dance with someone or other, make polite conversation with everyone, and anytime she stopped for a second, someone else would whisk her back on the dance floor. It was not just Kathryn, though she was the most popular, the whole senior staff team seemed to have to dance with everyone present. 

Eventually the crowd started to thin out and most of the Starfleet Brass and invited guests left. Kathryn felt the now familiar tap on her shoulder as she danced with Mortimer Herron. Kathryn had tried to excuse herself a couple of times and was now glad of the anticipated partner change. She just about stifled a laugh when she saw it was B’Elanna who was there. 

“Admiral Janeway. Care to dance with me.” 

“Lieutenant Commander Torres. The honour would be mine.” Kathryn replied, then whispered her thanks for the rescue into her ear. 

“We thought you might like an excuse to dance with someone who you don’t have to pretend with. You and Chakotay have been hardly able to dance with who you wanted all night so we mounted a rescue mission.” B’Elanna inclined her head to the side.

Kathryn looked and laughed out loud as Tom tapped Chakotay on the shoulder and Chakotay motioned to allow Tom to take Tal Celes off his hands. He seemed confused, then laughed as Tom obviously explained that it was him he wanted to dance with. 

“How come Tom had to dance with Chakotay?” Kathryn asked B’Elanna as they danced closer to the other couple. The dance floor and the room had really started to thin out even more now, and there were few people between them. 

“Last time I danced with Chakotay he stepped on my foot and had the cheek to blame me. Besides, I thought this would be funnier.” B’Elanna shrugged. 

Where Kathryn and B’Elanna had managed to step into some kind of rhythm together easily, Chakotay and Tom were clearly not working out how to do so. They were holding each other stiffly, stepping on each other’s feet, and nearly falling over. They were at least laughing at each other though.

“Have you come to rescue me from Tom’s awful footwork?” Chakotay raised his voice at Kathryn and B’Elanna as they approached. 

“Hey! You’re worse.” Tom retorted. 

“Nah, I think we’ll just watch the show from a safe distance.” Kathryn replied.

“If you think I’m dancing with you Chakotay after last time, you can think again. I’m pretty handy with a bat’leth you know.” B’Elanna commented. 

Chakotay and Tom separated themselves. 

“And would my lovely, if very scary with a weapon, half-klingon wife care to join me in a dance to save my toes from this lumbering beast.” Tom bowed over exaggeratedly to B’Elanna.

B’Elanna separated herself from Kathryn and danced away with her husband. 

Kathryn and Chakotay laughed and joined again to continue their dancing.

“Is it just me, or do you think that was all a ploy to get us to dance together again?” Chakotay laughed. 

“Oh definitely. It was worth it just for the laugh at you and Tom together. I just wish someone had taken a photograph; I would have hung it on my wall.” Kathryn laughed back. “But I think the dance earlier was set up too. Maura knew exactly what she was doing.”

“As if we need pushing to spend time with each other.” Chakotay replied. 

“Exactly. And now we both know we will be on Earth for a while, we can spend all the time together we want to.” Kathryn smiled.

“Don’t forget your mother invited me to stay with you for our leave. We have two months together without work getting in our way, you might get sick of me then.” 

“I think that might be the other way around. You deal with inactivity much better than I do. I’m more likely to drive you mad.” Kathryn teased back. She had not really thought much about the two months leave. She found she really was excited to spend time with Chakotay without the threat of mortal peril hanging over them. 

They had drifted to the patio doors and found their way onto the balcony. They stopped and looked out over the hotel gardens, leaning on the low wall. They stayed close together, and Chakotay had not let go of her hand and it lay over hers between them on the wall. The small number of other couples that were out there all contained lower ranking members of voyager’s crew and they took their leave to give them the space they thought their command team might need.

“Well I do believe your mother lives on a farm, I think we could always occupy ourselves by growing some tomatoes if nothing else comes to mind.” Chakotay replied. 

“That is a good idea, we might wait until we don’t have any of the three toddlers running around though, I can’t imagine they appreciate the delicacies of planting tomatoes.” 

“I can’t really imagine those toddlers being delicate with anything.” Chakotay snorted “But I would very much like to do some more gardening with you. Maybe we can find somewhere to go for that boat trip up a river sometime too.”

“I would like that very much Chakotay. But can we just borrow a boat instead of you making it? I’d rather not have to wait that long.” A smile pulled at the side of Kathryn’s mouth. 

“Deal. You source the boat. I’ll bring the picnic. How does that sound to you?”

“Sounds heavenly to me.” Kathryn smiled widely. 

They moved in slowly and closed the distance between their lips once again. Their lips touched and moulded together in a sensuous kiss. Kathryn’s mind seemed to cloud over, all she could think about was how good it felt to be kissing Chakotay, but soon after they started Chakotay withdrew himself with a sigh.

“Kathryn.” He whispered.

“Chakotay?” Kathryn questioned, suddenly unsure of herself as he had stopped. 

“I’m not saying this isn’t wonderful, but last time this happened we were rather drunk, and I don’t want this to just be something we do when alcohol is involved. I really don’t want either of us to regret this.”

“I wouldn’t regret it Chakotay. I didn’t realise you were feeling drunk, you clearly hide it well, but I’ve only had a single glass of champagne at the beginning of the night. I’ve been far too busy dancing and talking to people for that.” Kathryn sighed. 

“So none of those people you danced with even had the decency to get you a drink?” Chakotay laughed. 

“I stole a glass of orange juice off Naomi at one point if you are worried about me being dehydrated.” Kathryn laughed back. 

“Well I’ve had a couple more glasses than you of champagne, but not enough to make me drunk. I also stole a drink from Icheb, so you don’t need to be worried about me being dehydrated either.”

“The Doctor would be so proud of us, we’re actually looking after ourselves for a change.” Kathryn quipped. 

“He would be. And for the record, I’m not going to regret this either.” 

With that, Chakotay picked up Kathryn and sat her on the wall surrounding the balcony and brought his lips to hers once more.

Kathryn had been caught slightly off guard. She knew they were going to resume their kiss, but she had not expected him to effortlessly sit her on the wall. The excitement and shock from that raised her pulse even more than it already was. When their mouths met this time, they were greedier with their mouths. They explored each other and Chakotay’s tongue was just pushing against her, requesting entry when they heard a voice shouting from the doorway. 

“Admiral! Admiral!” 

Naomi Wildman appeared through the doors just as Kathryn and Chakotay managed to place her back on the floor. They were clearly not quite fully composed as Naomi stopped shock still and started stammering apologies for interrupting them. 

“Naomi, don’t apologise. What were you coming out here to tell me?” Kathryn asked, attempting to smoothen out her appearance and regain some composure as she went. 

“Well, its nearly time for the last dance of the evening, and I wondered if I could dance it with you? But it’s not a problem if not, CapAdmiral.” she corrected herself. 

“I would be honoured to have this dance with you! Who would I be if I didn’t dance with my wonderful assistant?” Kathryn motioned for Naomi to lead the way before she turned to Chakotay.

“Looks like I’m off to dance with Naomi. Shall we resume this later?” Kathryn winked and followed Naomi inside. 

Kathryn steadfastly ignored the looks she was getting from the people who knew she had been out there with Chakotay, and focussed on her assistant, ensuring they had a fun dance. Kathryn swung and twirled her around so that Naomi was in fits of giggles. When the song ended, they bowed dramatically to each other in their ball dresses and received a round of applause from everyone present. 

“Thank you! That was so much fun! I wish we could do this again! Your dress looks very beautiful by the way, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a fancy dress before….” Naomi rattled on excitedly as Kathryn led her back towards her mother and father who were waiting patiently in the corner ready to gather her up and leave once they said their goodbyes. Kathryn hugged Sam. 

“I’m sorry, I think I might have over excited her before bed. We had good fun though didn’t we Naomi?” 

“It was magical” Was Naomi’s response as she launched herself at her father who scooped her up with ease. Kathryn smiled at the loving way father and daughter looked at each other, even though they had only met in person for the first time a few weeks ago. 

Once Kathryn said her goodbyes to the Wildmans, she headed back towards her mother and Chakotay who had been dancing together while she danced with Naomi. Sekaya, Phoebe and James had all gone home not too long prior due to their little ones and wanting to be home not too late for Helen Paris and her husband to go to bed as they were baby sitting the toddlers for the night. 

As Kathryn crossed the dance floor once more, she noticed that as the orchestra were packing up, something else was being set up. 

“I thought that was it over? What else is being set up?” Kathryn asked once she was in reach of them. She stood next to Chakotay as they turned and she gently slid her hand into Chakotay’s much larger one. He jumped slightly at the touch but quickly regained his composure and wrapped his fingers through hers with a comforting squeeze. 

“I do believe that Tom might have been involved in some more music if people did not feel that the night was quite over for them yet.” Gretchen answered her daughter, trying not to react to the touch she could see between them. She was deliriously happy for them but did not want to make a big show of it for Kathryn had never been one for large public displays of affection with Mark. 

Kathryn and Chakotay did not stay long at the after party. They separately made their excuses and left the party arm in arm. B’Elanna was walking across the hotel lobby at the same time as they did. B’Elanna smiled at them and they returned it shyly, blushing slightly when B’Elanna winked at them before heading back into the party to find her husband. Chakotay and Kathryn walked up the set of stairs which led to Kathryn’s hotel room. 

“I don’t suppose you fancy coming in for a coffee do you?” Kathryn asked as she keyed in her access code to her room. 

“Do you even need to ask? But I would rather have tea if you are offering.” Chakotay replied as they crossed the threshold, fingers still intertwined. 

They did not even make it to the replicator for drinks before they gave in to all the impulses they had had for each other for the last seven years.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kathryn returns to her family home in Indiana.

Kathryn woke the next morning feeling very content, she stretched slightly and rolled over. When she opened her eyes slightly, she found that she was looking into the eyes of Chakotay.

“Morning” Chakotay’s voice was soft and husky first thing in the morning. 

“Good morning to you too.” She replied in an equally husky voice, snuggling closer into him. 

Chakotay bent and kissed her on the forehead as he wrapped his arms around her once again. They stayed like this for a while, content in that blissful state between wake and sleep, in the security and love of each other’s arms. Kathryn slowly reached full wakefulness and her hands on his chest started wandering. She let her hands wander across his bare chest and along his strong arms. When her hands started wandering lower, Chakotay moved and caught her arm gently. Kathryn looked up at him, his face was full of happiness and amusement. 

“As much as I would love to continue from last night, we really do need to be getting up. You only have hour until you are due to beam to Indiana. If your hand wanders any lower, I’m rather afraid you will be a bit late.” 

Kathryn’s hands continued their exploratory wanderings, now tracing his tattoo, and becoming acquainted with the contours of his face. 

“It’s my first day of leave in over seven years and I still can’t so exactly what I want with my day?” Kathryn teased, but she reluctantly started to sit herself up. He was right, and she was rather looking forward to being able to go to her family home. 

“Well, I do believe you insisted that your mother make her famous caramel brownies. So if that and fresh coffee aren’t enough to convince you then I don’t know what is.” he laughed as her eyes lit up at the thought. 

“Caramel brownies and a cup of coffee do sound rather good right about now. I’ll try and save you and Sekaya some brownies, but I can’t promise I won't eat them all.” she teased. 

Kathryn leaned over and kissed Chakotay firmly, but briefly before rising out of bed and making her way to the bathroom. The sight of a very naked and very confident Kathryn Janeway made Chakotay rethink his decision to stop her wandering hand moments ago. Kathryn could read him like a book. 

“Well, come on then Chakotay, time to start the day. I’m going to jump in the shower now, you are welcome to join me, or you can walk back to your room in your clothes from last night. Oh, a newly minted Captain doing the walk of shame. Imagine that!” She laughed at the thought. 

“Good thing we came to your room last night then. Imagine an Admiral doing the walk of shame in her ball gown from the night before. Can you imagine the scandal?” Chakotay played along, pretending to be shocked. 

He decided to take himself up on her offer for him to join her in the shower. In the end, Kathryn was only 10 minutes late for her transport to Indiana. 

Kathryn walked the short distance from the transport station to her childhood home. She had deliberately chosen to beam to the public station, rather than the private one she knew her mother still had from when her father had been an Admiral. Kathryn enjoyed her short walk, taking in the sights and sounds of the walk she took so often in the past. It felt so familiar, and yet so strange. She took note of all the differences and all the things which had stayed the same. She stopped for a few minutes and talked with Mr and Mrs Pickford who sat in their position on the porch as if they had not moved once since she had been gone. She had thought they were ancient when she was a child, she dare not ask how old they were now, but they seemed to be very aware of the news of Voyager. This was the first exposure she had really had to the world outside Starfleet, and it suddenly occurred to her that people on the street might know who she is and know her name. The thought was not a particularly comforting one. She shrugged it off, and carried on, stopping to speak to the odd person she passed that she knew from childhood. 

Eventually, she turned the corner onto her mother’s drive. She tried to take it all in, it felt so familiar and comforting, but also so strange and surreal. She walked along the drive and up to the front door, turning the handle and pushing it, she was assaulted by the achingly familiar smell that was uniquely home. She was instantly brought back to warm sunny days playing in the garden, drizzly November ones curled up next to her father with a good book, and family dinners sat around the dining table. 

“Mom?” Kathryn croaked out as she entered, her voice choked from the barrage of memories which flooded to her. 

“Katie!” Gretchen shouted back from the direction of the kitchen. She ditched her apron and quickly appeared in the hallway. 

“Welcome home darling” Gretchen whispered into her hair as she engulfed her daughter in her arms.  
Kathryn held on tight to her mother. She had only cried that first day they were back, but they threatened again now. She took a shuddering breath. 

“Oh Katie, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing mom. Absolutely nothing. It’s a bit like I have never really believed what has happened, but it just hit me square in the chest that I am home.” Kathryn smiled at her mother and let herself be led to the kitchen. 

Gretchen poured them both a large cup of coffee from the cafetière she had ready prepared and placed the largest batch of caramel brownies Kathryn had ever seen on the breakfast table between them.

“Oh mom! I know I said I had to make up for seven years’ worth of your brownies, but I didn’t mean all in one day!” Kathryn laughed as she helped herself to a tissue to stem her watering eyes and running nose. 

“Well I figured you might be hungry; I don’t know how much you got to eat last night. And besides, Chakotay, Sekaya and Paka are not going to be arriving too long behind you. I’m sure they’ll help us eat them.” Gretchen laughed as she grabbed one for herself and jokingly pulled the plate out of her way, knowing that would encourage her daughter to grab one herself. 

“I’m a bit nervous about these. I worry I have hyped them up in my head too much by fantasising about them when we were limited to leola root and Neelix’s experimental cooking. I just hope they live up to my memories.” She took a tentative bit and he mouth exploded in a fountain of bliss. 

Gretchen snickered at her daughter’s reaction, pleased that she was enjoying them so much. Kathryn quickly finished one and helped herself to another. 

“So you are hungry then?” Gretchen teased. 

“Uh huh” Kathryn manged to get out between bites. “This is the first thing I’ve eaten all morning. We missed breakfast, I managed to grab a coffee on the way to the transport though, or I wouldn’t be functioning now.” 

Gretchen smirked. She was sure Kathryn had not noticed her subtle slip with her use of the word we, but Gretchen caught it. 

“So you enjoyed your promotion party then?” Gretchen probed, with a knowing smile. 

“Er, yeah. It was very nice, I was a bit warn out by the end though, lots of dancing but it was good fun.”

“Anyone you enjoyed dancing with particularly?” Gretchen teased, knowing Kathryn was being deliberately obtuse to tease her. 

“Hmm, yes well I had lots of fun dancing with Naomi, and B’Elanna was another highlight…” Kathryn smirked. 

“And what about the lovely Chakotay?” Gretchen bluntly asked. 

“Hmm what about Chakotay?” Kathryn teased. 

“Oh Kathryn Janeway! I might be old, but I’m not blind. I saw the way you danced together and were holding hands, just best friends my arse. Now, the man in question is going to be here in just over an hour with his sister and nephew in tow, and I would quite like the real reason as to why you did not have time for breakfast this morning, and why Phoebe and Sekaya found you asleep on Chakotay’s sofa last week.” 

Kathryn laughed at her mothers loving but firm tone. 

“I’m pretty sure that is the exact tone I use when I want someone to report.” 

“You learnt from the best, but I think you are deflecting from the question.” Gretchen laughed with her daughter. 

Kathryn was deflecting. Kathryn loved her mother dearly, and they had always been close, but Kathryn had never been one for oversharing her emotions. With seven years of keeping her emotions in check and being able to mask them at a moment’s notice, she struggled to open up freely, even to her own mother. Kathryn made the conscious decision to be fully honest with her mom but was trying to think of how to say that you had a night of passionate wonderful sex with a man who was then coming to stay with them as their guest. 

“After the night at Tom and B’Elanna’s we were rather drunk and carried on the party for a bit, but we both fell asleep on the sofa. I bolted when our sisters arrived which made it seem worse than it was. And er, yes, I did enjoy dancing with him last night too…” Kathryn trailed off. 

“I’m glad you’re so close. And I can tell from your face that he didn’t go back to his room last night, don’t blush. You’re an over 40-year-old and you have been engaged twice before, I’m not under any sort of delusions that you are some celibate saint. I don’t care what you got up to, I just want you to be happy Katie.” 

“Thanks, I am happy. I’m very happy actually. We’re just seeing where this takes us, it’s strange for us not to be in a command structure and might take some getting used to.” She smiled, pausing before she said the next sentence out of her mouth. “And as for that celibate saint comment, I think seven years was long enough.” 

“What! Never? Not even a single fling?”

Kathryn laughed at the brazenness of her mother, reminding her so much of where her sister got her outrageous streak from. Gretchen was just much better at hiding it from public view. 

“I was a little busy you know, mortal peril and all that? I did have a brief romance with a hologram, a good flirt with an inspector intent on imprisoning telepaths of which we were hiding a ship full onboard as well as our own Vulcans, oh and I moved in with an alien with no genitals, but my mind had been altered for that one so I’m not sure it counts.” Kathryn had ticked them off on her fingers as she went, Gretchen laughed along at her daughters teasing mood. 

“Alright, I get your point. So mind blowing sex last night with seven years of built up frustration at sitting next to the sex god that is Chakotay every day.” Kathryn laughed and blushed at her mother’s brazenness. “I think that’s all the information Phoebe ordered me to ask while we were alone… Oh, she wants to know if he is better than Mark? She rather presumes so, Mark always seemed far too stuffy to be exciting in bed…”

“Mother! You have spent far too much time with my darling sister! She is such a bad influence on you!” Kathryn was laughing so hard she was crying now, along with the embarrassment of the questions coming from her mother. She excused herself to use the toilet and just before she rounded the corner out of sight she said to her mother. 

“Chakotay is a million times better.”

Nearly an hour later Kathryn and Gretchen were in the what Kathryn still thought of as her fathers’ study. Though her mother had taken it over in the many years since her husband’s death, to Kathryn she could still picture her father sat working at the large desk. They had spent the last hour moving the boxes that contained Kathryn and Chakotay’s belongings up the stairs once they had been delivered. Kathryn had insisted that she wanted to stay in her old bedroom, even though it was the smallest. Its decoration had been muted by time as the room had morphed into a guest room, but it still had the essence of the old Kathryn in it. Chakotay was taking the spare room, and Sekaya and Paka were sharing Phoebe’s old room. 

“I know I have it somewhere, it must be in one of these. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”

Gretchen was routing through several large boxes of her father’s old office and Starfleet possessions, seemingly intent on finding something to give to Kathryn but, as of yet, Kathryn was unaware of what her mother had suddenly decided she needed. 

Kathryn studied the wall of the office. He fathers ‘boasting wall’ as the family had always called it. His Starfleet awards and certificates adorned the walls and his medals and his Admirals pips sat pride of place in a display case in the centre where they had put them after his death. Kathryn moved to look closer at them, sighing audibly at the sight of the medals she recognised from the past, but now more aware of their significance than ever before. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Gretchen asked. 

“Three purple hearts. Mom, he only got three purple hearts and he died in a shuttle crash.” She sighed. 

“And you’ve got twenty-three and you’re still here. And for that, I am very grateful.”

“Actually, that makes it twenty-five. I had two before I made Captain.”

“I’m not sure I want to think about it, but please promise me you’ll try not to get any more.”  
Kathryn laughed at that. 

“I never wanted to get any in the first-place mom! I promise I will try not to add to the collection though.” 

“That’s all I ask.” Gretchen smiled at her daughter. 

Gretchen could barely begin to imagine the trauma which her eldest daughter must have been through. They had discussed things which had happened to her, but she nearly almost always skimmed over any mention of any of them getting hurt, or that at moments Kathryn was sure she was about to die. 

“I found what I was looking for by the way.” Gretchen stated with a smile instead of voicing her thoughts about her daughter.

“Do I get to know what it is now? Or is it still a surprise?” Kathryn lightly teased her mother.

“You never were any good at surprises. Here.” Gretchen pulled a small plate of metal from behind her back. 

Kathryn took it off her mother and held it with reverence. The small sign was simply engraved with the words Admiral Janeway. 

“He’d have wanted you to have it, I’m sure. You can use that one for your office at Starfleet when you get it.” Gretchen smiled. 

“Thanks. It’s going to take me a long time to get used to being Admiral Janeway. It just makes me think of Dad. Not to mention that Captain was my first name for seven years.”

“Honestly Katie, the things you have been through, and a rank change unsettles you.” Gretchen laughed at Kathryn as the doorbell rang and they both went to greet their house guests and show them around. 

Later that very evening Kathryn, Gretchen, Chakotay and Sekaya sat around the table sipping coffee or tea and feeling very full. Kathryn felt like she might explode, she was not sure she had ever eaten so much in her life. She just could not resist her mothers’ home cooked food. The comm system beeped from the corner of the room. They all ignored it, it was only a message after all, and they were at the table. It was only when the comm system started beeping incessantly with messages and incoming calls that they all stopped their conversation and turned towards it. Gretchen slowly stood up and walked towards the terminal, apprehensive as to why she would be getting so many simultaneous communications. 

“Phoebe is calling.” 

Gretchen answered the call from Phoebe to find her laughing hysterically and rolling around on the floor. 

“Phoebe? What is going on?” Gretchen inquired. 

“Oh? You don’t know?” Phoebe rolled around again, unable to get any more words out for laughing. 

“Phoebe. Please control yourself and tell us what is going on?” 

“The news, watch the news!” Was all Phoebe could get out. 

Gretchen hung up the call to her daughter and opened the next message which was from Tom and B’Elanna which was simply entitled ‘the cat’s out of the bag’ with a link to the federation news network. Gretchen tentatively opened it and saw what all the fuss was about. She struggled to stifle her giggle at the image and stepped away to let the rest of them see. 

“Ah.” Was Kathryn’s only response. Sekaya and Chakotay were silent, but his hand found Kathryn’s thigh under the table and squeezed it gently. Kathryn moved her hand to cover his. 

Gretchen read the headline out loud.

“Star crossed lovers? Newly minted Admiral Janeway and her former First Officer on Voyager, Captain Chakotay, seemed to enjoy their official promotion party last night at a hotel in San Francisco.” 

The photo which accompanied it was that which had caused the stir. The photo had been taken from rather a long distance, but it was clearly them on the balcony of the hotel embraced in a passionate kiss. Kathryn groaned inwardly at the whole situation, she was enjoying whatever was beginning between them, she did not want the world to know. Who would want that kind of pressure at the beginning of a relationship, if you could really count it as such with seven years of build-up.

“I guess we might have some explaining to do to the debrief team. We know we didn’t lie, but we might have trouble convincing them of that now…” Chakotay spoke after a few quiet moments. 

Gretchen and Sekaya looked at them questioningly. 

“We had to answer more questions about our relationship aboard Voyager than I’m sure was necessary. They didn’t seem to believe us that nothing happened between us in the Delta Quadrant.” 

“Oh Cooper is going to have another million questions for us about this now.” Kathryn grumbled to herself. 

“Admiral Alison Cooper?” Gretchen queried. 

“Yes, she’s who has been so insistent with this line of inquiry. Do you know her?” Kathryn inquired of her mother. 

“Oh, she’s all bark and no bite. She’s a lovely person, a romantic at heart. I used to have coffee with her occasionally, a friend of a friend you know.” Gretchen remarked. “I can’t imagine she was that concerned about it, she probably just wanted to put pressure on you and see if you were telling the truth or if one of you would slip up. Sounds like you did fine, don’t worry about her.”

“I don’t know about Admirals being all bark and no bite, from where I stand, they have to have something about them. Personally, I think they were trying to be sure that our relationship never impacted any important decisions. After the debriefing surrounding the Equinox the questions about us almost stopped.” Chakotay said, addressed to Kathryn. 

“I had the same thing.” She shrugged with an apologetic smile at her memory of the incident in question. 

“Can I ask about the Equinox, or would you have to throw me out of an airlock?” Sekaya voiced. 

“Let’s just say that in the fifth year we were out there Chakotay disagreed with a decision I made and I, er, I relieved him of duty and confined him to his quarters for it. Honestly, he should have staged a full mutiny at that. I was wrong. He should have removed me of command, had the doctor declare me mentally unfit, almost any way of relieving me of command would have been justified.” Kathryn looked up at him. “But instead, he sat in his quarters until I came to my senses and let him out.” 

“Because I knew you would come to your senses. You always make the right decision in the end Kathryn.” 

“Hmmm, I’m not sure about that. But our well recorded argument seemed to convince them that we were capable of being objective towards each other’s decisions. Even if I will now admit that I was in that I was in the wrong.” 

Chakotay lightly squeezed Kathryn’s thigh once again in silent acknowledgement of her words. Gretchen huffed a small laugh, if the room had not been so quiet at that moment, it would have been easy to miss. The three sets of eyes pondered her enquiringly. 

“Sorry. I’m not sure I’ve heard you admit to being wrong since before you were a teenager.” Gretchen shrugged.

“I wish I had a recording of that. Can I get you to sign a PADD to that affect Captain?” Chakotay teased, his use of her former rank slipping from his lips, it would take him a while to get used to that change.  
With that, the tone of the conversation shifted once more, and the joking and teasing conversations flowed once again.


	12. Chapter 12

“Are you sure this is a good idea Chakotay?” Kathryn asked as she hitched Kian higher on her hip.

“Which part? The ‘it’s not far, we can carry them’? Or the meeting your ex-fiancé and his family thing?” Chakotay replied as he turned his whole body to look at her for Katie was sat on his shoulders loudly shouting the directions to the park though she had no idea where they were going. 

Kathryn and Chakotay had been staying in Indiana for little over a week. They had spent most of that time with Sekaya and Paka as well as Phoebe’s twins, playing in the garden and relaxing into the swing of being on solid ground with time off. Their relationship had carried on in the trajectory of which it had started since their return to the alpha quadrant. They were laughing and enjoying each other’s company immensely, revelling in the ease of it. They had managed to sneak in a few passionate make-out sessions secluded in the garden, although they had not slept together again since that night of the ball. There had been no discussions, no declarations of love, but a silent understanding that they would take things as they came and enjoy being together. 

“Both now you mention it. I swear it wasn’t this far when I was a child. I can’t deny that I have some reservations about seeing Mark again, especially after he showed up at head quarters the other week. But your suggestion of taking the kids with us, and Mark bringing his and Carla will hopefully make it less intense. Thank you for the suggestion and especially thank you for coming with me and supporting me with this.” 

“You don’t have to thank me for coming with you. I must confess my motives were entirely selfish. I wanted to come with you so that I get to meet this fabled former fiancé of yours, together for 13 years, engaged for seven, my interest is definitely peaked.” 

They had arrived at the park a few minutes early, Mark and his family were no where in sight yet. They sat themselves down on a bench by a sand pit and let their charges loose. Kathryn sighed.

“Please don’t judge me by Mark. Honestly, I think we were together because it was familiar and comfortable. All that time we were together, and I could never set a date for the wedding. I think I was already married to Starfleet. When we reconnected after Dad and Justin’s deaths, he was a comforting presence, but I don’t think it ever went beyond that. I never even made him my next of kin. Mom got my house and pension and everything when they declared us dead. I dread to think how terrible that would have made him feel.”

“You can’t regret what’s in the past Kathryn. Take today to get to know him again, make him see that you are ok with him marrying again so that he can let go of that guilt, and so that you can let go of your own.”

“I’m not very good at that last part.”

“I’m well aware of that, but please try.” Chakotay picked up Kathryn’s hand from where they lay entwined on the bench and kissed it tenderly as Mark and his family pushed through the gates to the park. 

Kathryn and Chakotay stood to greet them. Kathryn felt her heartbeat quicken in anticipation, her command training quickly covering it and she straightened her back and plastered a smile to her lips. 

“Kath! Good to see you. This is Carla and our children Lucy who is four and Callum who has just turned one.” 

“Mark, good to see you. You’ve met Chakotay briefly, and these are some of Phoebe’s little ones, Katie and Kian.” The toddlers waved briefly before continuing the excavations in the sand. 

Chakotay stuck his hand out pleasantly to shake Marks, who accepted it hesitantly. 

“Ah yes. The Marquis terrorist who Kath was sent to capture.” 

Kathryn and Chakotay cringed. Chakotay recovered first. 

“Yes well. Pleasure to meet you Mark.” Chakotay replied pleasantly, overriding his instincts to retaliate in kind with some words about him giving up on Kathryn, but he knew she would not appreciate it. he had to keep the moral high ground here. 

Carla stepped between the two men, shaking Chakotay’s hand briefly but warmly before Kathryn’s. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Captain Janeway.”

“Oh please, call me Kathryn.” She smiled at the dark-haired woman who stood at least a head higher than her. 

“Besides, I hear congratulations are in order Kath. She’s an Admiral now.” Mark piped up. 

“Yes, well thank you. It’s been a wild few weeks. Shall we introduce the children and let them play?” Kathryn directed the stilted conversation to something more neutral. 

Carla led the young girl with Chakotay to the twins playing in the sand while Mark got the small boy out of the buggy and held him in his arms.

“Callum looks just like you Mark. Your family seems lovely.”

“Thanks Kath, they’re good kids. A nightmare at times though, it has to be said.” Mark smiled at his former fiancé before sighing. 

“I’m sorry about how I acted just then.”

“I don’t think its me that you need to apologise to. You didn’t call me a terrorist.” Kathryn lifted her eyebrow in a good imitation of Tuvok. 

“Yes, sorry. I don’t know what came over me, I suddenly felt angry and blamed him for you getting stuck out there.” 

“Without him and the rest of the Marquis I would have been dead several times over Mark. He’s not a bad person, but I don’t need to justify him to you. I’ve had two weeks of Starfleet demanding just that of me and I’m on leave now so I won’t do it again.” She gave him a stern look which was not quite the infamous death glare but still gave the same air of authority. 

“I know. I’m sorry Kath, I really am. This whole thing has shaken me to be honest, I just feel guilty that I was happy when I thought you were dead, but you were really fighting for your life.”

“Mark stop. I am genuinely happy for you. And I’m not saying that it was an easy ride, but I wouldn’t change what happened to me. I’ve found more friends and extended family than I ever had and have learnt to appreciate what I’ve got. Look at your family Mark, they are what you always wanted out of life, but do you really think I could have given you this? Appreciate what you have, and don’t be so hung up on guilt”

“Thanks Kath, I’ll try. I really am glad you made it home, and I’m happy for you and Chakotay. I’ll try and make amends.” Mark gave her a small smile as together they made their way to the sand pit to join in with the children and Carla and Chakotay. 

“Chakotay, I’m so sorry about Marks behaviour. I don’t know what’s come over him recently, your arrival back on Earth has really shaken him, he’s not acting at all like himself.”

“It’s fine Carla, I was expecting a bit of animosity from people. But I confess I had to bite my tongue rather hard to not say anything, this is hard enough for the two of them without me making it more difficult.” 

“Well what he said was totally uncalled for and I apologise on his behalf. I do hope that this is good for both of them to clear the air and doesn’t hurt either of them too much. I know Mark feels guilty that he moved on when he thought she was dead.” 

“Kathryn is the strongest person I’ve ever met, she’s more worried about how he is reacting to her presence and hoping that it hasn’t had any negative affect on your family.” 

“Mark’s been jittery, but constantly trying to reassure me that this doesn’t affect anything. And honestly, I’m not worried, I just hope he is ok. From what he had told me, I don’t think their relationship was that great.”

“From the bits Kathryn told me, I gathered the same. But maybe that is making the guilt worse somehow.” Chakotay shrugged. 

“It’s possible. Do you mind if I ask how long you have been in a relationship? Mark didn’t seem to be aware until we saw the.. um.. the image in the news.” 

Chakotay rolled his eyes playfully. He liked Carla. She seemed fairly quiet and perceptive, but with a friendly air which make him think that she could be trusted. 

“Honestly, we haven’t talked about it. We had a silent understanding on the ship and outside of the command structure and the constant peril, things have moved forward, but we haven’t discussed it.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry I presumed.”

“Not at all. I’m staying with her at her mothers house at the moment, so I think the whole Federation is presuming.” They smiled slightly at each other and noted that Kathryn and Mark had finished any initial discussions and were heading towards them. Momentarily distracted from watching the three children playing in the sand, Chakotay felt something land on his head and trickle down his neck and face. 

“Kian! Why ever did you do that? Apologise to Chakotay for covering him in sand.” Kathryn’s stern voice was out. 

“Sorry uncle Kotay. Katie told me to Aunt Kathryn.” 

Chakotay scooped the wobbly lipped little boy off the floor and held him on his lap. Kathryn rounded her attention on Katie, her glare demanding an explanation from her namesake. 

“Sorry. I thought it would be fun and he would come play with us.” Katie too started to wobble her lip so Kathryn scooped her up and sat beside Chakotay. 

“We don’t throw sand at people do we Katie, Kian. If you want someone to play with you, you come and ask them. And Kian, don’t always do something just because Katie tells you to. Think if it makes sense first yeah?” 

“Ok Aunty Kathryn. We are sorry.” The twins chanted. 

“Chakotay is a little busy right now talking to us, but we promise we will come play properly later. Why don’t you see what Lucy is playing and see if you can play together?” Kathryn placed a kiss on Katies head, then Kians and they placed them back down in the sand and nudged them over to where the four-year-old was burying something. 

“Since when could you talk to children Kath? You always hated them before.”

“I don’t know about hate, rather didn’t know what to do with them. But we had a child aboard Voyager. Besides our crew were young, leading 150 people across the Delta Quadrant made leading two toddlers less daunting.” Kathryn laughed, her eyes meeting Chakotay’s in a silent joke about them being the mother and father of the ship. 

“And little Katie is just like you.” Mark commented. 

“So many people have said that. I hope not, the poor thing.” Kathryn groaned. 

The four of them watched the children playing in the sand, Katie clearly slowly taking charge of the situation. Mark and Kathryn broke the silence at the same time. 

“So Carla, tell me what it is that you do for work?”

“Chakotay I need to apologise for my behaviour earlier.” 

Two separate conversations started and before long, all four adults were relaxed in each other’s company with the conversation after that being lighter than before. After around an hour of pleasant conversation, Mark and Carla gathered up their charges and headed home leaving Kathryn and Chakotay each pushing a toddler on a swing. 

“That was less awkward than I thought it might be.” Chakotay commented once the other couple had moved out of earshot. 

“Apart from when he called you a bloody Marquis terrorist. I swear, he better be glad I didn’t have my phaser on me.” 

“I had to bite my tongue and clench my fists, but I suppose I might have to get used to the odd reaction like that.” 

“Hopefully you don’t. But it worked out alright in the end, he seemed to warm to you.”

“Yes, he was alright. He apologised so all is forgiven, it was an emotional time for him, and he said something he didn’t mean to.” Chakotay shrugged. 

“So how do you feel about the whole situation now?” Chakotay probed Kathryn. 

“I’m not sure. I’m relieved that is over and things are less awkward now. But it has also made me rather sad for the life that I lost.”

“In what way, Kathryn?” Chakotay barely whispered. 

“Not that I miss Mark. If anything, this has confirmed to me that I have been well and truly over him for a long time. But I am a bit jealous of him. I never thought I wanted a family; I was far too caught up in Starfleet to consider that. But seeing him with his kids, and looking after these two here, it makes me rather wonder what I’ve given up on in life. It just suddenly hit me that I am too old and never going to have any of my own, it made me rather melancholy I’m afraid, sorry.”

“Kathryn, you don’t need to apologise to me. But you are far from too old to have children. In years gone by you might have been, but with modern medicine I can’t see any reason why not if that is what you want.” 

“And what about you Chakotay. Did you ever want to have children?” Kathryn inquired. 

“I’d never really stopped to consider it. My life before Voyager was rather hectic, too busy in Starfleet then too perilous in the Marquis. But I suppose I had always thought that I would have them one day. In my culture the whole village helps to raise the children. It drove me crazy as a teenager, everyone knowing your business, but Voyager was like that and I learnt to appreciate it. Then we had the whole business with Seska and I thought I had a child. Even though those weren’t the circumstances I wanted my child to be born into, I accepted the child into my heart. When we found out she lied, I was relieved but also saddened. I hadn’t realised how much that meant to me.”

“I hadn’t even thought about Seska. I’m sorry you went through that. But you’re right about Voyager, we were one family and we all helped to raise Naomi. And I’ve never known gossip to travel as fast as it does around that ship.”

“If only we could harness the speed of the gossip, we could have run the engines at warp 10 on that alone.”

Kathryn laughed and Katie screamed that she wanted to go higher, and their attention was dragged back once again to Phoebe’s young children.


	13. Chapter 13

“What did you think of the second one? I liked the kitchen, but there was not enough room in the en suit for a bath. What’s the point of an en suit if I will never use it.” 

Kathryn and Chakotay were canoeing down a small creek not too far from her mother’s home. They had spent the morning viewing houses for Kathryn near San Francisco for when she started back at headquarters. 

“Well what about the fourth one? That had a nice big kitchen and a large bath.” Chakotay queried. 

“But the dining room and kitchen were separate, I much prefer the dining to be done in the kitchen.” 

“Did you like any of them?” Chakotay asked, his voice conveying the amusement he felt at her pickiness even though Kathryn could not see his face sitting in front of him as they canoed down the river. 

“Honestly, I just couldn’t see myself living in any of them. None of them felt much like home. Do you have a favourite?” 

“They were all far too modern for me. All solid lines and clean surfaces. To me that is far too Starfleet. I would want something more homely and traditional. Think about your mother’s house for instance, that feels homely to you, and that is wooden and filled with country charm. Maybe these modern sleek houses are what you wanted and liked before we left, but now I think you might want something that grounds you to Earth more.”

“Lets pull up here and have our snacks.” 

Kathryn and Chakotay tied the canoe to a pole and hoisted themselves onto the grassy bank. Chakotay spread the picnic blanket out and pulled her down with her legs in his lap. He started absently rubbing her feet and calves. 

“I think you might be right. I’m only looking round houses which are like the one I used to own. Maybe I want something different entirely.”

“Is that where Phoebe and James live now? It’s a very nice house, very artsy on one hand, but covered in toys on the other.” Chakotay laughed. 

“Yep, that’s the one. They offered it back to me, can you believe it. Of course I said no, it’s not mine any more and you’re right, it doesn’t fit what I need now.” Kathryn paused for a few beats, pondering her phrasing of the next question. 

“What about you? What are your plans for where to live when we go back to work?” 

“I don’t know. I think I’ll rent a small apartment until I find something I like. You’re much further forward thinking than I am right now.” 

“And what would you’re dream house look like then?” Kathryn teased.

“I’m not sure. Something not too big, but with enough space to comfortably have people over. A nice kitchen so that I can really get back into cooking. A small garden, with a workshop maybe so that I can do some more carpentry when I feel like it. Enough space to put Sekaya and Paka up when they come to stay, and I think I’d like it to be a bit secluded from the rest of the world. Maybe off the beaten track so that it’s a place I can really get away from it all. Don’t suppose you know of a place like that I could buy do you?” Chakotay teased. 

“If it has a big bath tub we might be fighting over those keys. It sounds heavenly Chakotay, I can picture it now, a log fire roaring in the corner in the winter, comfortable squishy sofas and the smell of you cooking up something delicious.”

“Well that sounds even better.” Chakotay replied. 

Kathryn sighed. Chakotay raised his brow questioningly. 

“Honestly, when I was looking round those houses, I wasn’t thinking so much as to whether I would fit in there, but rather whether I could see you living there. Because honestly having lived next to you for seven years, now here with my mother, I’m rather thinking that the thing that is going to make it feel like home is having you live there too.” Kathryn smiled, hoping his reaction to her admission would be positive. 

“What are you saying Kathryn?” Chakotay stopped his ministrations along her legs and held her gaze in an intense and loving stare, his breath seemed to stop.

“I know we haven’t ever really discussed what this is.” She indicated the small space between them. “But I wondered if we could find a house which suited both of us and move in there. Together.” 

“Kathryn Janeway! Are you asking me to move in with you?” A small smile was creeping up Chakotay’s face.

“Yes, I might be. But my only stipulation is that we absolutely must have a bath, other than that, wherever you want to live is good with me.”

They lent together and kissed passionately. Chakotay moved his lips fractionally away from hers. 

“And my only stipulation is that said bath is large enough for us to both get in at the same time. I think I could grow to like baths if that was the case.” 

Kathryn licked her lips seductively. 

“I think that could be arranged. Do we have a deal then?” 

Chakotay answered Kathryn with a hard kiss which took the wind out of her. She returned the favour in kind and they tumbled onto the floor, the food they had brought long forgotten. It was nearly dark by the time they returned to Gretchen’s home and they did not see her as they went to sleep together in Kathryn’s bed. Deliriously happy in the start of their new lives proper.


	14. Chapter 14

Gretchen arrived early with Maura and Owen. She had visited Kathryn and Chakotay’s new house a few times since they bought it, and they had spent most of their leave renovating it with the help of other Voyager crew. It had become something of a hub for them, people passing through whenever they felt like it and helping out, Kathryn had a constant pot of coffee and tea on the go for whoever passed through. Naomi and Icheb had been their first overnight guests, giving Sam and her husband some time alone for the first time in over seven years. Icheb had been very useful in helping get the electricity up to scratch, for the house was rather old and had needed a lot of updating. Naomi had been instrumental in deciding the colour schemes for each of the three guest rooms and their office and had given herself the role of chief supervisor. But now it was nearly finished, and they were throwing a housewarming party. Their leave was nearly over and would soon be back working for Starfleet and doing the necessary overhaul of Voyager. 

Gretchen, Maura and Owen let themselves in and called out their welcome, heading to the kitchen area where they heard voices. 

“Honestly Kathryn, I might have to ban you from using this thing. Stick to the coffee pot.”

“Kathryn, have you been near a replicator again?” Gretchen laughed at her daughter as she rounded the corner into the large kitchen area. It opened out onto a large conservatory with wonderful views out to their garden and the valley beyond. The house blended perfectly the old and traditional with the new and the modern, Gretchen approved very much. 

“Mother! Now why do you assume that? I’m a Starfleet Admiral, a scientist, and a competent engineer and you assume I’ve broken a replicator?” Kathryn scoffed in mock offence. 

Gretchen just stared her daughter down with laughter in her eyes. 

“Alright fine I broke it. But replicators just don’t like me.” She threw her hands in the air in mock distress and patted Chakotay on the back as he tried to fix it. 

“B’Elanna will be here soon Chakotay, she’ll fix it in no time.” Maura laughed. 

“Yeah, and we’ll never hear the bloody end of it. She only installed it for us the other day.” Chakotay replied, straightening up and greeting Gretchen and Maura with a kiss on the cheek and a handshake with Owen. 

“I heard my name?” the half-klingon shouted from the doorway. 

“Damn that good hearing. Errr… how do you feel about fixing the replicator?” Chakotay admitted to his friend as she entered the kitchen. 

“You didn’t let Kathryn touch it did you?” She laughed. 

“Hi B’Elanna, it’s good to see you too.” Kathryn laughed as the engineer started fixing whatever was wrong with the replicator before even greeting everyone else. 

“Hello!” Came another shout from the door.

“We’re in the kitchen.” Kathryn shouted back towards her sisters voice. 

Phoebe, Sekaya, Seven, the Doctor, Harry and Libby all bundled into the kitchen. 

“Ohh Katie! Love the dress! Very bold for you, it suits you. Glad to see Chakotay is having a good effect on you.”

“Thanks Phoebe.” Kathryn kissed her sister on the cheek in greeting before moving on to her other guests. 

Sekaya had not missed this exchange but headed to her brother as Kathryn watched out of the corner of her eye. She watched as Sekaya pulled Chakotay into a tight hold and spoke soft words in the language Kathryn could not speak. Chakotay responded with a few quick words of his own before moving on to the other guests. Before Kathryn could dwell on it further her sister drew the attention of the room 

“Alright. Come on you two, we’re all here early but you know we are just here to get the grand tour. Hup to it. We want to be nosy, sister!” Phoebe, ever the blunt one, stated.

“Alright fine.” Kathryn laughed. “So we are all stood in our kitchen. I don’t know if Chakotay has more insight into this room than me because all I know is where the coffee machine is.” 

“Err, nope. Kitchen. Pretty standard stuff. Sorry.” Chakotay shrugged and laughed, not really sure what else to say about the last room to be completed, it lacked any real personal touch yet. The large group all followed Kathryn out to the hallway. 

“This is the hallway. Front door where you came in and can be kicked out from if you are too much of a pain *cough* Tom *cough* Phoebe *cough*. This door is a small toilet, not too exciting. This is the living room, you’ll notice the Doctor kindly gave us permission to use some of his images.” Kathryn led the posse into the living room. 

It was large. Double height with the beams of the ceiling exposed, and a large wooden fireplace on one side. Upon the fireplace were framed pictures, mainly of their time in the Delta Quadrant, but also some more recent ones. Gretchen picked up a couple that caught her attention. The photo of Kathryn and Chakotay kissing which had been shown throughout the news networks as well as one of the two of them walking along with Katie and Kian on their shoulders all four grinning broadly. The photographs they had chosen in here from the Delta Quadrant were all of them out of uniform, relaxing on the holodeck, hardly a sign of Starfleet graced this room. Despite its large size, the room appeared cosy and homely, soft sofas, cushions and rugs were accented by wooden furniture, like the large coffee table which graced the centre of the room. There also were large glass doors which were open onto the conservatory which was graced with more summer furniture and views of the garden. 

Kathryn led her way back to the hall and into the only other room on the ground floor which was their new office. Two large desks graced the walls on either side. Large bookcases overflowed with books, most rescued from the storage where Gretchen had left them when Kathryn had gone, unsure what to do with such a large collection. 

“You’ve taken up Dad’s tradition of a boasting wall I see.” Phoebe commented, inclining her head to where Kathryn and Chakotay’s achievements were displayed on the wall. In the centre, however, were two large photographs side by side. One of the Voyager crew all stranded in the Delta Quadrant, it was the one Phoebe recognised as one the Doctor snuck to them in his matrix. The other was of the Voyager crew in their dress uniforms the night of their promotions and subsequent ball. The resonance of those images being on their boasting wall not being lost on Phoebe. 

“This is our little mezzanine level come sung.” Kathryn waved her arms dramatically as the estate agent who sold her the house had. 

The snug was a small area at the top of the stairs where some very comfortable looking armchairs sat with a low table and a small bookcase. It was the perfect place to read. One wall was just a railing, which looked down onto the living room below, a wonderful combination of seclusion, but also being part of the house. It was beautiful and one of the things that had made Kathryn fall in love with the house. 

Kathryn and Chakotay showed their entourage through the guest bedrooms and the main bathroom. Finally, at the end of the hall to the master bedroom, they ushered their friends and family in. Phoebe almost gasped. The room was at the end of the house, and the large glass door opened onto a small balcony with two chairs around a small table. 

“Well if that isn’t the perfect place to have the first coffee of the morning, I don’t know what is.” Gretchen sighed. 

“I’m more interested in the size of that bed.” Phoebe quipped. 

The huge four poster bed stood in the centre of the room. 

“Surely one does not need that much space to sleep or copulate?” Seven queried out loud.

Phoebe and Sekaya snorted with laughter. 

“Can we keep her around? She’s even more blunt than you.” Sekaya whispered to her friend. 

“Er, no Seven. One does not.” The Doctor was the quickest off the mark to reply to Seven. 

“So why did you feel the need to buy such a large bed. Surely a standard one would suffice for the activities required of it?” 

Kathryn and Chakotay struggled to keep a straight face, their eyes locking briefly in silent exchange.

“Because we liked it Seven. And honestly, we both have some horrific nightmares, with this bed there is less chance of either of us lashing out by accident and hitting the other.” Kathryn shrugged, moving on quickly to the en suit bathroom. 

Opening the door with a flourish, she ushered people in to one of her favourite rooms. There was a standard shower which did both water and sonic, as well as the standard toilet and sink. But the thing which stood out on a raised pedestal was a large bath. Where the rest of the house had been a blend of modern and old, this bath was top of the range modern. It was deep enough to cover up to your neck and there were jacuzzi jets around the tub. But the thing that tickled Tom Paris the most, was how large it was. 

“For someone so small Kathryn, you do seem to like rather large things.” Tom called back to her. Phoebe and Sekaya roared with laughter as Tom elbowed Chakotay suggestively. 

“Doctor, I am unaware of the joke.” Seven questioned loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Well Seven, Tom is merely stating that Kathryn likes large things and is therefore implying that Chakotay’s…” 

“Right! That concludes the tour! Everyone back downstairs, we have some jobs for you to set up before the rest of the guests arrive.” Kathryn clapped her hands together to cover the rest of the Doctors sentence to Seven and ushered them all out of her bedroom. 

Kathryn and Chakotay were the last to leave and they hung back. Chakotay put his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. 

“How is Owen holding up, he hasn’t caved and told Maura yet?”

“I don’t think so or mom would know and we’d definitely be aware of that.” Kathryn replied, reaching up to peck Chakotay on the lips. 

“Sekaya? She was the one I was worried about figuring it out.” 

“She recognised your dress as baring the symbolism of our people, but she swore she wouldn’t say anything.” 

Kathryn nodded in acceptance.

“Come on then, we better go find this lot something to do before they start making even more jokes about my anatomy.” Chakotay laughed with Kathryn as they walked back down the stairs of their home arm in arm. 

Kathryn and Chakotay stood just inside their conservatory surveying their garden. It was heaving with their friends and family. The entirety of Voyager’s crew had turned up with their families. Even Tuvok had made it, sufficiently recovered from his illness to attend their housewarming party. Their families were there too, playing on the small play area they had set up for the many children their friends and family had. Kathryn and Chakotay had also reconnected with several people who they were friends with in Starfleet prior to their disappearance to the Delta Quadrant or Chakotay’s defection to the Marquis. 

“Is everyone here?” Kathryn asked. 

“I believe so. I think Reg was the last here. I can’t think that anyone is missing.” Chakotay replied. 

“Shall we do this then?” Kathryn asked with a broad smile.

“I’m ready when ever you are my love.” Chakotay moved and kissed her. “Besides, James found the Champagne. If he tells Phoebe we are going to have a disaster on our hands before we know it.” he teased. 

Kathryn nodded and quickly returned to the kitchen to usher Gretchen, Maura and Owen outside, giving a knowing nod to Owen as they went. 

Kathryn and Chakotay stood at the top of their garden, their backs to the house, looking down at their assembled friends and family. She winked at Naomi who winked back and rounded up Katie, Kian and Paka. 

Chakotay whistled loudly and everyone attention was soon on them. 

“Thank you everyone for coming today for our wonderful house-warming. We are truly honoured that so many of our friends and family would come to share this with us today. We would also like to thank the hundreds of our fellow voyagers that gave up their time to come and help us get it to the state it is today. We really appreciate it and can’t thank you enough.” Kathryn started, looking lovingly at Chakotay who spoke next. 

“With the thank yous out of the way, I come baring an apology. We have lured you here under slightly false pretences I’m afraid. See this isn’t really a house-warming party. It’s a wedding.” 

Chakotay looked at Kathryn and pulled her in to his side as she snaked an arm around his waist. The crowd were speechless for a second before the cries of congratulations and surprise filled the air. Kathryn hushed them all once more.

“We’re sorry we didn’t tell you. But we decided it was either this or elope, and I’m sure mom would have killed me if we did that. We decided we didn’t want anything fancy, just our most cherished friends and family with us. So unless anyone has any objections?” Kathryn scanned the faces of the stunned but elated crowd with a grin and turned to Naomi who was beside her now with a cushion with rings on it. Katie, Kian and Paka were trailing behind her spreading flower petals on the floor as they moved through the crowd. 

Owen removed himself from the crowd and walked towards them to marry them. 

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you. It’s bloody difficult to keep a secret this exciting from anyone, let alone your wife, sorry honey.” He flashed an apologetic look at his wife.

The wedding ceremony was short and sweet. No fancy words or gushing promises. Simply the joining of two people, a declaration of love and the promise to love each other for ever and always. Kathryn and Chakotay kissed to seal their marriage. It was beautiful in its simplicity, Kathryn and Chakotay were wearing modernised versions of his peoples wedding attire. Kathryn wore a soft summery dress in bright blue and coral colours with intricate beading and jewellery. Following the wedding, a traditional Irish ceilidh band started to set up for the guests to dance to later in the evening. 

Following the ceremony, Kathryn and Chakotay found themselves swamped by their friends and family. Gretchen reached them first and wrapped her arms around them both, tears streaming from her eyes.

“I love you Katie. I’m so happy for you! Your father would be so proud of you.” 

Kathryn hugged her mother closely, her own tears of happiness spilling over. 

“And welcome to the family Chakotay.” 

“Thank you, Gretchen.” Chakotay hugged his mother-in-law back. 

Phoebe launched herself upon them and pulled Sekaya along with her. 

“Katieeee! So like you to ruin my fun in making you go dress shopping! But since that means me and Sekaya are now sisters, I’ll let it pass.” Phoebe teased Kathryn.

“I’m proud of you big brother. I’m glad you have found your peace.” Sekaya kissed her brother on the cheek and continued squealing with Phoebe in delight. 

“Do you realise what you have done there? Those two were bad enough as friends. They’re going to be total nightmares now they are sisters.” Gretchen laughed as she moved away to let others in.   
Tom and B’Elanna were next in. 

“Congratulations! Have to say I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get to plan a stag night for you, big man. But I’m happy for you both none the less. Now, I have to find Ayala. I do believe I have a few replicator rations I need to cash in on.” 

“Oh ignore Tom. He’s just gutted he didn’t find out about it in advance. He thinks he’s the king of gossip and all that.” B’Elanna laughed as she hugged both Chakotay and Kathryn in congratulations. 

“Could you two do us a favour, I’m not sure we’re going to be able to escape. We hid a load of champagne in one of the cupboards in the office. Could you crack it out for us please?” 

“We’d be honoured. Come on Tom, lets get the bubbly and we can celebrate that your matchmaking attempts over the years weren’t in vain.” B’Elanna laughed as she dragged her husband into the house. 

A little while later, the champagne had been flowing and they had all danced their socks off at the ceilidh, Kathryn found herself chatting to Sam Wildman, B’Elanna, Phoebe and Sekaya. 

“So come on then Katie. We want all the gossip. If we’ve missed out on a hen-do then we get to get the gossip now.” Phoebe prodded her sister. Sam Wildman was not as close to Kathryn as the rest of them and looked decidedly awkward about enquiring into the very personal life of her former Captain and Commander. Kathryn seemed oblivious, flying high on the wonderful day and the glasses of champagne. 

“What do you want to know then my darling sister?” Kathryn asked, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

“First things first, how did you keep this a secret from us all?”

“Well we didn’t find it that difficult. Sorry to break it to you Phoebe, but me and Chakotay are used to having to keep straight faces when being questioned and keeping secrets from people.” Kathryn shrugged. B’Elanna and Sam understood, even if Phoebe and Sekaya could not comprehend it really. “We told Owen because we wanted him to marry us and he got us permission from Starfleet. And we told Naomi and Icheb because they were staying here when we were trying to teach Katie and Kian to spread petals. They’ve been brilliant by the way Sam, I’m so grateful to Naomi.”

“Well she does adore you. I can’t believe my own daughter knew and didn’t tell me. Captains assistant first, daughter second I suppose.” They all laughed at that. 

“My next question is when did he ask you to marry him?”

“Errr, he didn’t.” 

“Oh, so you asked him. Typical Katie, always in control.” 

“Yeah, no. Sorry Phoebe. Not what happened either.”

“Well then how did this happen? You didn’t just spring it on him today did you?” Phoebe pressed. 

“No! I mean, we booked to go to Venice next week and we were talking about how it would be a lovely place to go on a honeymoon and we just decided that we would make it that. Sorry. No big declarations of love or romantic gestures.” Kathryn shrugged. 

Phoebe’s mouth hung open. 

“So you just decided this together. Just like that. Oh Katie, you always have been a strange one. But I’m so glad you’re happy. At least you’ve found someone to be strange with. At least tell me you were somewhere romantic at the time.” 

“We were trying out that bathtub for the first time actually.” Kathryn blushed lightly as her sister and Sekaya whooped and hollered. 

“And is it good?” B’Elanna asked with a straight face, only her dancing eyes betraying her amusement. 

“Uh huh. Very good.” Kathryn laughed back, setting free and hoping no one was overhearing their conversation. 

“What about you Sam? How have things been with Greskrendtregk since you’ve been back?” Phoebe directed giving Kathryn a respite for the moment. 

“It’s been really good. The first few weeks were a bit strange. Getting to know each other again and obviously him and Naomi meeting properly. Then Icheb came to stay and the dynamic changed again. It’s all been a bit mad, but very nice. I think things are working out just fine.” Sam smiled happily. 

“I’m glad things are working out for you Sam, but what I actually wanted to know was how things were for the week Naomi and Icheb were staying here!” Phoebe laughed. 

Sam blushed deeply. 

“I errr… yes. It was very nice.” Sam stammered out, never the boldest especially compared to those others sat around her. 

“Well feel free to send her this way anytime Sam. She’s no trouble at all and we enjoy having her around.” Kathryn deflected for Sam, taking pity on her for Phoebe’s hounding. 

“Except tonight I suppose?” Phoebe’s attention was back on Kathryn, her eyes dancing in mischief. 

“You know what, my wedding night I would like to myself actually thanks Phoebe.” Kathryn quipped back.

“And when are you off on this romantic honeymoon of yours?” B’Elanna asked. 

“The day after tomorrow.” Kathryn smiled at the thought.

“A week in Venice. Sounds wonderful! Me and Tom are thinking of going on a belated honeymoon at some point so let us know what it’s like. That is, if you get to see any of it outside of the hotel room.” B’Elanna wiggled her eyebrows at her friend eliciting laughs from the rest of them. 

“B’Elanna! We might be newly married, but we aren’t as young as you two! We certainly will be seeing Venice!” 

“Who are you calling old and why would we not be seeing Venice?” Chakotay’s soft teasing deep voice came from behind Kathryn. 

Chakotay squeezed onto the bench next to Kathryn and slid his arm around her waist as he gave her a peck on the lips in greeting as they held each other’s eyes with pure love and joy emanating from them. 

“It’s quite late, let me know when you are ready to leave.” Chakotay said to Kathryn when no one answered him.

Kathryn’s voice echoed the confusion and amusement on her face. 

“Leave? How much champagne have you had? We live here now remember.” She chuckled. 

“Do you really think I am going to spend the first night with my wife in our own house? Nope. I have a surprise for you whenever you want to go.” 

“Where are we going?” Kathryn asked, a large crooked grin plastered on her face. 

“Well it wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you that now would it?” he grinned back, dimples in full force. “And your mother has agreed to lock the house up for us, so people needn’t leave when we do.” He kissed her lightly again. 

“Oh you know I can’t stand not knowing what a surprise is! Come on! Lets go say good bye to everyone then head off.” 

Kathryn and Chakotay materialised in a clearing in a forest, the edge of which was lit up by small candles burning so that they could see. Chakotay led her to the edge of the clearing then in a quick, swift motion swept her off her feet and cradled her. Kathryn screamed lightly and giggled as she realised what he was doing. It wasn’t far along a small path until Kathryn saw what they were headed for. A small log cabin was almost entirely obscured by trees. Chakotay kicked the door open and carried her across the threshold. 

“Oh Chakotay! It’s perfect!” 

Chakotay placed her down carefully onto the floor and Kathryn looked around properly. It was a very small log cabin. It was a single room containing a table, sofa facing a roaring log fire and large bed. It was all very traditional. There was no electricity, let alone modern technology. Candles flickered from every surface and enhanced the romantic mood of the room. 

“It reminded me of the cabin I was going to build us on New Earth. I thought it was a fitting tribute to stay here on our first night as husband and wife.” 

“Your wife.” Kathryn seemed to glow. “I rather like being your wife, I have to say.”

“I’m very much enjoying being your husband too.” Chakotay whispered huskily. “Especially when my wife is looking as stunning and sexy as you.” 

“My husband is pretty sexy and handsome himself.” Kathryn’s husky voice echoing his desires. 

Chakotay swept Kathryn off her feet once more.

They did get to see some of Venice the following week, but certainly not as much as they expected.


	15. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twenty-two years after Voyager returns to Earth Admiral Janeway gives a cadet some advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy the epilogue to my story. I only intended it to be short, but it ran away with me and I loved the characters. This is inspired by another fanfic I have read with a similar premise for the epilogue but I can't find it again anywhere. If anyone knows what it is please let me know so I can credit them with the idea.   
> Aoife is pronounced EE-fa if you aren't familiar with the name. Aoife is a woman warrior in Irish mythology.

Kathryn Janeway looked around the busy cafeteria at Starfleet Academy. It was busy. She was glad she was not in her uniform, as she spotted a fairly free table and headed over to it. It had been twenty-two years since she had been made an Admiral, and was feeling rather old surrounded by the young cadets as they embarked on their career in Starfleet. 

“Sorry, it is very busy. Do you mind if I join you?” Kathryn enquired of a small brunette woman. 

“It’s fine, go ahead. There’s a lecture this afternoon so I think everyone has come here for lunch at the same time.” 

“Oh I see. Good to hear it isn’t always this busy when you get your lunch, I didn’t remember it being this busy when I was here.”

“You’re in Starfleet?” The young woman asked.

“Uh huh.” Kathryn answered, sipping her coffee as she debated whether to introduce herself to this woman or not. 

“I don’t suppose you have any insight into which pathway to choose? What did you choose? I can’t decide between science and command.” The woman sighed. “I’m Lauren by the way.”

“Katie.” Kathryn introduced herself, deciding that if they were going to discuss their life choices then it would be better if the cadet was not terrified that she was talking to an Admiral.

“You are a first year right? How did your aptitude tests go? Which did you come out strongest in?” Kathryn asked. 

“I scored fairly highly in everything except security and medical. But they weren’t what I signed up to do anyway so that is fine by me.” 

“What did you sign up to do?” 

“I signed up because I want to explore space. I want to see new worlds and phenomenon. But I can do that in either science or command, but I don’t know which to pick.”

“You can do that from both but there is a subtle difference. I picked science when I was at the academy. I enjoyed it, but after a few years I switched to command. The difference between them is that in science you get to do all the small experiments. You get to work on the phenomenon and the work you do directly gets results which you then report up. With command, you don’t get to do the experiments yourself, but you do get the results and you can direct what research is done. The difference is subtle, but I enjoyed both.” Kathryn shrugged. 

“Were you debating between the two in your first year as well?” Lauren asked. 

“Actually, I was debating between science and engineering in my first year.” Kathryn laughed. “Honestly my father was in command and I didn’t want to be in his shadow. I was pretty stubborn as a young girl.” 

“So you’re a Starfleet family then?” 

“Yes, I suppose so. My son is in his first year at the academy too. I’m meeting him here actually for lunch in a minute. I don’t know what route he is going to go down. My daughter is not interested in Starfleet though, she’s at university studying archaeology.”

“None of my family have been in Starfleet. They’re all chefs now actually. Our family owns a few restaurants. Honestly, I’m from the border colonies and a few of my family were Marquis. Apart from that no one has been out to space or had the same desire to explore. They were a bit reluctant to accept my choices. The situation out there is better now, but it hasn’t been that long really since Starfleet weren’t exactly their favourite people.” 

“There was a stigma about the Marquis for a while, but I hope that is all but gone. I hope you won’t find much animosity about that here, but if you do, come and find me and we’ll deal with it.”

“One of our instructors is former Marquis. That helped convince my family to be honest. That and that I couldn’t help run the restaurant because I am useless at cooking.” Lauren laughed at the last part.

“You might find the food in space a little lacking if you are used to fresh food rather than replicated stuff. I can’t cook either. I’m even banned from using the replicator at home.” Kathryn laughed. 

“That’s true. I’ve never met another person who can burn food from a replicator. Good thing Dad can cook or me and Aoife would have starved growing up.” The cadet was almost fair like Kathryn, with brown hair tinged with auburn. His stature and build were large like his father and his eyes were the deep chocolate piercing kind that belonged to Kathryn’s husband of twenty-two years. 

“Don’t be so rude to your mother!” Kathryn laughed, kissing her son on the cheek in greeting and pulling him into a quick hug. 

“This is my son, Declan.”

“Hi! Lauren. We’ve met a few times right? Aren’t you in my tactics class?” 

They shook hands as he took a seat next to Lauren and opposite his mother. 

“Sorry if my mother has been bothering you. If she sees someone looking a bit lost or lonely she likes to sweep in and rescue them. She does seem to collect strays.”

“I’m not that bad. You know full well you wouldn’t have been born if I didn’t so don’t complain too hard young man.” 

“Not that bad? How many dogs have you rescued now?” 

“Oh stop it. That’s not the same. You know your grandma loves them keeping her company during the day.” 

Gretchen had moved into a smaller house next door to Kathryn and Chakotay when she retired. Phoebe and James had moved into Gretchen’s old house when their family outgrew their own. And even in the big farm house in Indiana they had had to remodel the house slightly to accommodate their six children. 

“Yeah, sure. That’s why you and Grandma find so many.” 

“Three. We have three at the moment. That’s not too bad. Anyway, me and Lauren were just discussing which career track to take.” Kathryn informed her son, moving the conversation from one of the many favourite topics of her children to tease her on.

“So what are you leaning towards then Lauren?” Declan asked. 

“I’m trying to decide between science and command.” Lauren voiced. “And yourself?” 

“Did my mother put you up to this? She’s been dying to ask me for weeks but has been restraining herself.” Declan shot a look to Kathryn. 

“I didn’t actually. Me and your dad want you to make your own decisions. We never wanted to make you feel like you had to go into Starfleet or what career path to take.” 

“Well I have already submitted my decision actually. I’ve chosen command.”

“I think you’ll do wonderfully. We are proud of you as we would have been with whatever you decided.” Kathryn beamed. 

“Even if I’d have told you I wanted to be a pilot like uncle Tom?” Declan teased. 

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I might have disowned you then.” Kathryn laughed. 

Declan had only moved out a few months ago when he started at the academy. Aoife had moved out the previous year to go to university, so the house suddenly felt strangely empty at the moment. She and Chakotay were making the most of it, but she did miss getting to see her children every day. She tried not to wander in and see her son in full Admiral uniform when he was at the Academy even though her office was only across the campus at headquarters. Although Chakotay had a more difficult time of trying to give their son the space he needed to grow, being a professor at the academy. He tried to arrange it so that he wasn’t in his classes, but it was not always possible. Kathryn and her son did meet up on campus occasionally for lunch or a coffee, but Kathryn was carful to always leave her uniform in her office. Kathryn’s hair was now almost completely white, with just a few wisps of auburn still clinging on. She was still a well know figure, her books on the Delta Quadrant and their adventures aboard Voyager had been a hit with Starfleet personnel and civilians alike, but she was always careful that they used old photographs of her to the public. It gave her some degree of anonymity out and about these days, though everyone in Starfleet knew the face of Admiral Janeway. Everyone it seemed, except the first-year students who were yet to have her lecture series on survival in extreme circumstances which started next term. That afternoon, she was giving her annual guest lecture about their experiences in the Delta Quadrant. It was an open event, and nearly always full. 

“Why are we disowning Tom this time?”

“Harry!” Kathryn jumped as he spoke from beside her. 

“How are you Harry? I hear you ship out again tomorrow morning.” 

“Is that Captain Harry Kim?” Lauren whispered to Declan.

“Yup.” Declan whispered back.

“Wasn’t he on Voyager?” Lauren whispered in awe. 

“Yes.” Declan replied, his amusement growing. He suspected she had not worked out who she had been talking to, but this seemed to confirm it. 

“Your mother sure knows a lot of important people.”

“You have no idea…” 

“Bye Dec! Be good and enjoy the academy! See you in six months when I am back!”

“Bye Harry!” Declan waved back as Harry retreated across the cafeteria, clearly in a rush to get somewhere. 

“I can’t believe you know someone who was aboard Voyager! That’s so cool!” Lauren laughed at her new friend as Kathryn turned back towards them. Declan shot his mother a look which said “she doesn’t know who you are does she” and Kathryn replied by just shrugging. 

“Voyager was such a momentous achievement. It was the stories of Voyager which got me interested in space! I was born a few years after Voyager returned but I wish I had been born earlier to see them come back. Wouldn’t that have been amazing. Do you remember their returning? I’ve seen the videos so many times.”

Declan shrugged. He was not really sure what to say to that. If he had been born before Voyager landed, he would have been born on the thing.

Kathryn suddenly felt very guilty she had not introduced herself fully. This poor young woman was going to be mortified when she found out who she was spilling this to.

“Uh, yes. I remember Voyager returning very vividly actually. I…” Kathryn started before she was interrupted. 

“There you are. I’ve been on a wild goose chase all around campus. Do you or Dad ever actually use your offices?” 

“Aoife!” Kathryn exclaimed. “I didn’t think you would be back for another two weeks at least.” She hugged her oldest child and kissed her on the cheek in greeting. Aoife was much more like her mother in stature. She was short, although just a bit taller than her mother as she liked to point out whenever she had the opportunity, and her eyes were the same piercing blue-grey as Kathryn’s. Her skin though was much more like Chakotay’s colouring as was her mop of long dark hair. Aoife and Declan looked nothing alike, each inheriting opposite traits from their parents. It was only when you saw the four of them together that it became obvious. 

Aoife shrugged. 

“The environmental control system failed so the snow got too heavy on the dig site, so we have abandoned it until the start of next term. I thought I would surprise you guys.” 

Aoife and Declan hugged in greeting. 

“Well that is wonderful! I would offer to take you for coffee this afternoon, but I am working.”

“There’s a lecture this afternoon that me and Declan have to go to but its open to the public too. It’s about the Delta Quadrant and I hear Admiral Janeway normally gives it herself. You could always join us if you are at a loose end. It should be fascinating! I’m really excited.” Lauren invited. 

“Admiral Janeway herself? Really?” Aoife said uncertainly with a hint of sarcasm as she pierced her mother with her eyes. “I wonder how they managed to convince her to speak.”

“It must be something to do with her being married to the professor.” Declan bantered back to his sister. 

“Really?” Lauren asked in amazement. “I heard there were rumours that she and Captain Chakotay were dating when they got back to Earth, but I didn’t know they were married!” 

“Errr. yeah. Definitely married.” Kathryn looking to her wedding ring. 

“Yeah, Lauren. I’m not sure I have introduced myself properly. I’m..”

“Aoife! Miral came to find me! She said you’d been looking for me! What are you doing home?” Chakotay hugged his daughter then kissed his wife quickly on the lips in greeting before continuing quizzing Aoife. 

“Kathryn Janeway.” Kathryn reached her hand across the table and shook hands with the red-faced cadet who was slowly sinking into her chair. “Sorry, I feel like I’ve deceived you by not telling you who I was. Every time I went to tell you someone came over and distracted me. But its amazing what you learn when you leave those admiral’s pips in the office.” Kathryn smiled reassuringly at the cadet who she was sure she had just traumatised. 

“Er nice to meet you ma’am.” Lauren spluttered. 

“Please don’t call me that. On duty I prefer Admiral. And off duty please call me Kathryn or Katie.” Kathryn smiled, Lauren seemed to be overcoming the shock, but her face still showed the embarrassment. 

“What I said about the Marquis earlier, you can see now why it is a subject close to my heart. Any problems at all, please come find me.” Kathryn jotted down her office comm link. “And Dec’s father was in the Marquis too so he can probably relate a bit. We’ve been out to the border colonies a few times as a family too. So please comm me if you want an ear to talk through which path to take or anything at all. I don’t bite, I promise.” Kathryn smiled. 

“Thank you. I will. It might take me a minute to get over the shock though.” Lauren laughed shakily. 

“Kathryn? I think we might need to leave now if you need to change before the lecture.” 

“We have a few minutes, I put my clothes in your office to save me walking back across campus. I could do with a coffee before anyway.” 

“I’ll grab them mom. Dad, Dec tea? What can I get you Lauren?”

“Oh, no I’m ok thanks.”

“Nonsense Lauren. I’ve embarrassed you enough, the least I can do is get you a drink.” Kathryn prompted. 

“A hot chocolate would be lovely thanks.” 

“Two black coffees, two teas and a hot chocolate coming right up.” 

“Hi. Lauren? I don’t believe we’ve met properly. I’ve seen your report card though, very impressive.”

“Thank you, Captain.” 

“Chakotay please.” Lauren shook the proffered hand.

Aoife returned with the drinks and Chakotay and Kathryn stood to leave, takeaway coffee in hand. 

“See you next week for your summer holiday if not before. I promise I’ll try not to embarrass you in my lecture. Aoife, what are you doing with your afternoon?”

“I’m going to go and surprise Grandma and the dogs I think. I came to the lecture last year, I’m not too sure I want to hear what you guys went through again.” 

“Give my love to the dogs and your Grandma. Lauren, lovely to meet you, and please keep my son awake this afternoon hum?” Kathryn hugged her children and Lauren and left with her husband of twenty-two years.

“So Declan Janeway I take it.” Lauren shook Declan’s hand once more.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was enjoying myself far too much.”

“It’s fine. I was just really star struck you know. She’s nothing like I thought she would be. I thought she would be ruthless and scary. But she’s nice. And shorter than I imagined.”

“Yeah, she’s great, but don’t tell her I said it. I’ve seen her work a few times and she can be properly terrifying when she wants to be. Trust me, we didn’t do the same thing wrong twice as a child.” Declan laughed. 

“She seems like a great mom though.”

“Yeah, they’re great people. Hey, didn’t you say you are from the border colonies. What are you doing on your two-week summer break? You can’t be going home.”

“Nope, home is too far for that. I was just going to stay here and explore a bit. I haven’t been very many places on Earth yet so I guess it’s as good a time as any.”

“You would be more than welcome to come and stay at ours. Our house is always like a conveyer belt of people just popping in unannounced, you’d get to meet a lot of the Voyager crew too if you’re still fangirling about Uncle Harry.” 

“Oh you aren’t going to let me live this down are you. But random people turning up unannounced to an Admiral’s house sounds rather like a risky policy to me.” Lauren laughed as they stood up, drinks in hand to go towards the lecture theatre. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to consider security? Tuvok said almost exactly the same thing.” Declan teased back. “But I am serious though, our house has always housed lots of cadets over the holidays. Mainly those from Marquis backgrounds who’s parents were on Voyager, but lots of others as well. One year I spent the summer outside in a tent because we didn’t have enough space.”

“Really?” Lauren laughed. 

“Yeah! I was ten and it was the most fun summer of my life.” Declan and Lauren laughed and chatted as they found their seats next to Declan’s fellow first-year friends and he introduced them.

“Well this will be fun.” Beneren Wildman joked. 

“I heard last years lot made it a drinking game. See how many times we know a funny story Kathryn has left out.” Jessica Paris chimed in. 

Admiral Kathryn Janeway entered the stage and started talking. Lauren was in awe. This was the strong independent Captain that beat the odds and got her crew home from the Delta Quadrant, not the kind-hearted mother she had spoken too only minutes ago. The whole audience listened intently. Enraptured with her stories, hanging on every word. 

As Declan listened, he realised why his sister had not wanted to listen to it again. He was hardly listening to anything new, but he realised that anything he had ever been told had been guarded with the filters one puts on when talking to non-Starfleet personnel or children. He knew of the hardships and what they had been through, but he had always focussed on the friendship side of it, not the terrified for your life and your decisions mean life or death for your crew side of it. Declan and the other children of Voyagers came away with a much deeper respect and understanding of what it meant that their parents were alive and home on Earth. They were happy and they were one family, and for that they were all truly grateful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for getting to the end of my little fluffy indulgent story. I hope you found as much enjoyment from it as I did writing it :)


End file.
